Fox Searchlight Hears THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

If Attack The Block was the best film I saw at SXSW, Sound Of My Voice is a close, close second. It’s also a science fiction movie, but in a very different way. Brit Marling plays the leader of a cult who claims to have come back from the future to prepare a select group for the days after the apocalypse. Two documentary filmmakers infiltrate the cult to expose her and find themselves unsure what to believe anymore. It’s a science fiction movie whose scifi premise is thoughtful, intriguing and requires no special effects - at least none beyond the beautiful Britt Marling, who also co-wrote the movie. As the mysterious cult leader Marling has exactly the sort of charisma that makes a leader.

Director Zal Batmanglij’s (what a name! I’d shorten it to Zal Batman though) film was in limbo after SXSW; it was a hit at Sundance as well, but Sound Of My Voice isn’t an easy sell. Still, Fox Searchlight has stepped up and bought the film, release date unknown.

This puts Searchlight big time in the Brit Marling business; they are distributing the OTHER science fiction film she co-wrote and stars in, Another Earth, this summer.

Yay for both of these films. The Golden Age of Indie Scifi soldiers on.