Radio Free Albemuth (film)
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''Radio Free Albemuth'' is a 2010 American
film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...
of the
dystopian A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...
novel '' Radio Free Albemuth'' by author Philip K. Dick, which was written in 1976 and published posthumously in 1985. The film is written, directed, and produced by John Alan Simon and stars Jonathan Scarfe and Shea Whigham.


Plot

In an alternate reality, circa 1985, the United States of America are under the authoritarian control of President Fremont. Berkeley
record store A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sol ...
clerk Nick Brady lives modestly with his wife Rachel and their infant son. Nick has been experiencing strange visions and dreams. He confides in Rachel and his best friend, science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick. Nick calls the source of his visions
VALIS ''Valis'' (stylized as ''VALIS'') is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, intended to be the first book of a three-part series. The title is an acronym for ''Vast Active Living Intelligence System'', Dick's gnostic vi ...
(Vast Active Living Intelligence System). One recurring symbol that he has been seeing is an ichthys. While he and Phil sit at a table, an orbiting satellite shoots a pink laser directly into Nick's head. He rushes his son to the ER, convinced that he has an
inguinal hernia An inguinal hernia or groin hernia is a hernia (protrusion) of abdominal cavity contents through the inguinal canal. Symptoms, which may include pain or discomfort especially with or following coughing, exercise, or bowel movements, are absen ...
. The skeptical doctor is stunned to find that Nick is right. Nick has subsequent visions that tell him that he should relocate to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, where he lands a job at a record label. Philip is visited by two members of FAP (Friends of the American People). They press him for information about Nick's visions. The female FAP agent returns and sleeps with Philip. After their liaison, she pretends to be underage, hoping to coerce him into revealing what Nick is seeing from VALIS. Philip refuses to divulge anything about Nick. Meanwhile, Nick has a dream where a woman is singing. During the dream, someone comments that there is something about her singing that seems subversive. Eventually, the woman turns up at Nick's record label, looking for a clerical job. She introduces herself as Sylvia, and Nick just assumes that she is a singer. Sylvia gradually reveals that she also receives visions from VALIS. She explains that there are several thousand people who receive transmissions from the orbiting satellite, and they are very loosely organized as a secret society. The Russian government blows up the orbiting VALIS satellite, and Sylvia explains that it will take another 100 years for a replacement satellite to arrive. She writes a song with subliminal lyrics about VALIS. Nick forces The Fisher Kings to record the song, despite their total lack of interest in it. When they debut the song at a club, Nick explains to Philip how the subliminal messages are encoded in the recording. FAP arrest Nick and Philip. They waste little time in executing Nick, as well as Sylvia. The film ends with Philip in prison, writing about Nick's VALIS experience. While he is working in a field one day, some teenagers gawk at the prisoners and laugh. Their boombox is playing Sylvia's subliminal song, and Philip realizes that the secret society found a way to get the song out, despite FAP's best efforts.


Cast

* Jonathan Scarfe as Nick * Shea Whigham as Phil *
Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter, musician, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, she became a cultural phenomenon during the mid 199 ...
as Sylvia * Katheryn Winnick as Rachel Brady * Hanna R. Hall as Vivian Kaplan * Ashley Greene as Rhonda * Mason Vale Cotton as Ezra * Elizabeth Karr as Mrs. Brady *
Matt Letscher Matt Letscher is an American actor, director and playwright, known for his roles as Captain Harrison Love in '' The Mask of Zorro'' and Colonel Adelbert Ames in '' Gods and Generals''. He co-starred in '' 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Bengh ...
as Mr. Brady * Rosemary Harris as Light Angel *
Jon Tenney Jonathan Frederick Tenney (born December 16, 1961) is an American actor. He played Special Agent Fritz Howard in TNT's '' The Closer'' and continued in its spin-off '' Major Crimes''. Early life Tenney was born in Princeton, New Jersey. His mot ...
as FBI agent * Rich Sommer as FBI agent * Joel McKinnon Miller as detective * Scott Wilson as President Fremont


Production

In February 2004, Utopia Pictures & Television acquired the rights to three novels by science fiction author Philip K. Dick, including the 1985 novel ''Radio Free Albemuth'', considered to be a semi-autobiography of the author. Producer John Alan Simon was attached to produce
film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...
s based on the novels, including ''Radio Free Albemuth''. Simon became the writer and director for the film adaptation for ''Radio Free Albemuth'', and filming began in October 2007 in and around
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Simon said that the film may be titled ''
VALIS ''Valis'' (stylized as ''VALIS'') is a 1981 science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, intended to be the first book of a three-part series. The title is an acronym for ''Vast Active Living Intelligence System'', Dick's gnostic vi ...
'' upon release. He explained, "The script is based at this point almost entirely on ''Radio Free Albemuth''. The financiers like the title ''VALIS'' better - so that's the tentative title. Since ''Radio Free Albemuth'' is essentially the first draft of ''VALIS'', we ended up with rights to both from the estate of Philip K. Dick." He further commented that "if ''Radio Free Albemuth'' is successful, ''VALIS'' the book would form the basis for the sequel to ''VALIS'' the movie. In other words, the story of ''VALIS'' would form the basis for ''VALIS 2''."


Release

The film screened as a work in-progress on February 27, 2010, at the Sedona International Film Festival. The world premiere was at the Gotham Screen International Film Festival in October 2010. A trailer for the film was released on March 2, 2011. The film was released in select cities (in addition to VOD) on June 27, 2014, by Freestyle Releasing.


Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, a
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
, reports that 36% of 11 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.4/10.
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
rated it 35/100 based on six reviews. Jeanette Catsoulis dismissed the film's "stiff staging and so-so special effects" in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' before concluding, "The excellent Shea Whigham, as a science-fiction writer, is our guide and narrator, but even his gravitas won't keep you from laughing at an extraterrestrial who thinks that hiding subliminal messages in pop songs is the way to start a revolution." Richard Kuipers of '' Variety'' called it "an engrossing adaptation" that "operates successfully as a study of enlightenment and a straight-ahead conspiracy thriller". John DeFore of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' wrote, "Though it echoes '' A Scanner Darkly'' in a few pleasing ways, ''Albemuth'' is a substantially less satisfying affair, one whose longueurs and (deliberately?) cheesy effects work will alienate all but Dick's hardcore devotees." Gary Goldstein of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' called it "a sluggish, often cheesy sci-fi thriller".


See also

* List of adaptations of works by Philip K. Dick


References


External links

* * * * * {{Philip K. Dick films 2010 films 2010 science fiction films American science fiction films Films based on science fiction novels Films based on works by Philip K. Dick Films set in California Films shot in Los Angeles American dystopian films Rhino Films films Films based on American novels 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language science fiction films