RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH – REVIEW
Friday, October 8th, 2010
Went to see the screening of this movie last night with EL on the first night of the Gotham Screen International Film Festival in Tribeca. The film Radio Free Albemuth is based off the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name which I did not read. You may have seen Bladerunner, A Scanner Darkly, or Minority Report, all three Philip K. Dick books turned to major motion pictures. This was not the case as Radio Free Albemuth was extremely indie. Terribly indie. The story is about a man, Nicholas Brady, who receives transmissions, visions, and directive in his sleep from an sattelite in space regarding the corruption of a fascist, totalitarian government by way of the President. The president addresses and controls the country by implanting fear using alarming messages of a subversive society of terrorists called Aramcheck, living among us in the world and responsible for death and destruction. All of this is being narrated by protagonist Nicholas Brady’s best friend, a nonfiction sci-fi novelist, who is actually Philip K. Dick as an autobiographical character of himself in the book. Ironically accompanied by Alanis Morisette (probably just coincidence), Nicholas and Philip set out to overthrow President Fremont with a plan to insert subliminal messages into a hit pop song with intentions to spark an uprising of the nation’s people to take action against the state. The story is brilliant. The movie, not so much. The book, on my list for sure. Riddled with bad acting and lame special effects, it was pretty clear there was just not enough money to make this film come together the way it should have. (1/5)

























