Sound of My Voice: Like Sci-fi Deprived of Science

As Maggie, leader of an obscure cult in Sound of My Voice, Brit Marling has the radiant, unlined purity of a dream angel. Her beauty is so sexy but virginal, she could become a New Age televangelist. But she has brought her secret agenda “from the future” (2054), a mystery amateurishly probed by Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius), who are making a clandestine documentary to expose Maggie.

Denham and Vicius, though effective, get vamped-out by Marling (Another Earth), whose charisma is backed by savvy talent. Maggie babbles with conviction and has the L.A. vibe of a smart player. Zal Batmanglij’s movie has numbered chapters and a docu-dossier aura that feels like sci-fi deprived of science. Lorna, a former drug user, is halfway tranced by Maggie. Peter, still wounded by his mother’s early death, is a bastion of skepticism.

With its stripped-down realism and uneasy atmosphere, the story is vaguely menacing and mildly suspenseful. Most of the recruits belong in a soft, vegetative Comic-Con, with Marling as Mother Cornucopia. The final revelation is suitable for a minor Twilight Zone episode.