Sound of My Voice

LITTLE ROCK — What separates Sound of My Voice from standard-issue “cult of-the-week” fare is that it deliberately embraces the cognitive dissonance that accompanies life in a cult. The odd “wait-a-second” feeling that director Zal Batmanglij imbues the film with makes it more memorable than its conventional peers.

Watching a movie and joining a fringe group both require a willingness to suspend disbelief, and with this particular sect that’s essential. To meet Maggie, the leader of this cult, members have to be willing to strip into hospital gowns, ride blindfolded in a minivan and wait in a basement for her to offer her wisdom.

Most of us would probably say no to the proposition and stick with a self-help book, but Maggie (Brit Marling, who co-wrote the script with Batmanglij) and her henchman Klaus (Richard Wharton) have convinced the faithful that she is not merely a pretty blonde in a white robe. She has returned from the future to save her flock from a coming doom that awaits nonbelievers.

Little does she know (or maybe she is aware) that her two newest recruits, Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius), aren’t connoisseurs of her Kool-Aid. He’s a schoolteacher, and she’s the troubled daughter of a Hollywood power player. Both are trying to make a documentary exposing Maggie as a fraud.

As you might suspect from listening to her, Maggie isn’t legit. She and her more devoted followers also have a troubling fascination with guns and with committing possible felonies in the name of the cause.

What makes Sound of My Voice intriguing is that Peter and Lorna aren’t a budding Woodward and Bernstein. Their investigative skills are more on par with Beavis and Butt-Head. They’re not as stupid as the latter famous duo, but they simply don’t have the emotional strength for the task.

Peter is still smarting from the loss of his mother over a decade ago, and Lorna has been the subject of a few interventions. Peter doesn’t believe Maggie’s spiel, but he can’t stand up against her motherly approach. Because Peter and Lorna are too disorganized and unstable to pull off convincing ruses of their own, they may find themselves in trouble before they get any usable footage.

Marling, who also starred in and co-wrote Another Earth, can effortlessly go from a voice of comfort to a frightening tyrant in a second. She’s not on the screen much, but she dominates every frame she’s in.

Marling and Batmanglij also achieve the rare feat of making Maggie’s fate suspenseful, even if she’s as far from likable as you can get. She’s fascinating to watch even if her philosophies could have been plagiarized from fortune cookies.

Batmanglij expertly captures the paranoia that runs through cults. Part of the reason people are willing to believe the nonsense espoused by them is because the leaders do a magnificent job of making the outside world look scarier than it really is.

Sound of My Voice 87

Cast:

Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius, Brit Marling, Davenia McFadden, Kandice Stroh, Richard Wharton, Christy Meyers, Alvin Lam, Constance Wu, Matthew Carey

Director:

Zal Batmanglij

Rating:

R, for language including some sexual references, and brief drug use

Running time:

85 minutes