Radio Free Albemuth

2010
R
1h 51m

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Alanis Morissette, Jonathan Scarfe, Shea Whigham, Scott Wilson, and Katheryn Winnick in Radio Free Albemuth (2010)

Play trailer2:25

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Drama Sci-Fi

Sci-fi thriller from Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly); Nick Brady receives messages from space and joins conspiracy to overthrow authoritarian U. S. regime.Sci-fi thriller from Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly); Nick Brady receives messages from space and joins conspiracy to overthrow authoritarian U. S. regime.Sci-fi thriller from Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly); Nick Brady receives messages from space and joins conspiracy to overthrow authoritarian U. S. regime.

Director
- John Alan Simon
Writers
- John Alan Simon
- Philip K. Dick
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.6/10

1.9K

YOUR RATING

Director
- John Alan Simon
Writers
- John Alan Simon
- Philip K. Dick
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Filmed in October 2007, this movie had been stuck in post-production hell since 2010, only to show a incomplete cut to independent film festivals until a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 helped raise the funds to give the film a theatrical release.

Goofs
Early in the film, PKD tells his buddy that he just finished his new novel and it will be published in hardcover (a nice change, since his early SF were all published by cheap paperback houses), then in reply to the question of it's subject he says, it's a what if the Germans won WWll premise. He's obviously referencing PKD's arguably most successful novel (it won the Hugo) published in 1963. The film is set in 1985, but since Dick was dead for three years already in this universe, maybe it was an intentional distortion.

Quotes
[first lines]
Phil: [narrating] My friend Nicolas Brady, who in his own way tried to saved the world, lived in Berkley practically his whole life. Back around 1985, Berkley seemed like an oasis in a country that had become polarized and divided. But fate, or God, or whatever, had something else in store for my friend Nick. And, as it turned out, for me too.

Connections
Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Philip K. Dick Adaptations (2016)

Soundtracks
Professional Torturer
Written by Alanis Morissette (uncredited)
Performed by Alanis Morissette

User reviews54

Review

Featured review

9/10

The first film to really capture the work of Philip K. Dick

While previous adaptations of the work of the late, great Philip K. Dick have often been enjoyable, none has really taken a great deal from the original source stories beyond the most perfunctory aspects of the plot.

Radio Free Albemuth, while not sticking slavishly to every letter of the original text, is the first adaptation to really capture the spirit and convey the substance of Dick's work. Although this film does not have the high tech sheen of the more celebrated films to be taken from Dick's writing, it is every bit as gripping and exciting as the best of them, but also retains the intelligence, and political thought that previously has tended to go missing in translating Dick from page to screen.

John Alan Simon has written an exemplary screenplay and matched it with strong direction. The acting performances are also fine throughout.

I saw this at the Sci-Fi London film festival and got the distinct impression that I was not alone in my enthusiasm for this movie.