Vague Visages’ Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat review contains minor spoilers. Michael Casey and Paddy Murphy’s 2023 movie on Amazon features Sinead Morrissey, Michael Casey and Steve J. Palmer. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Described as a “pop-punk rom-com,” Michael Casey and Paddy Murphy’s Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat is a winsome coming-of-age film with surgical wit. The film itself is just as loose and nonconformist as the main characters of Mark Donagh (Casey) and Lulu (Sinead Morrissey), less centered on plot-driven story threads outside of them forming a band, Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat. The bulk of the film features snapshots of the protagonists’ relationship gradually unfolding across ordinary days, with Lulu and Mark stirring up trouble around town by skipping school, stealing from a local church donation box and admiring graffiti. 

As Mark, Casey channels a geeky version of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong. He often busks with his brother, Steve (Paul Fitzgerald), and a little girl dressed like a Blues Brother. Mark also struggles with low self-esteem, especially when dealing with a group of “Stephen King-level” bullies who pick on him, but Lulu makes his punk heart beat faster, and Mark instantly falls for her. Morrissey’s husky voice and cool confidence allows her sarcasm to roll off Lulu’s tongue with ease, making it easy to see why Mark is so drawn to her.  And the actress especially shines in emotional scenes with Lulu’s estranged mother, bringing every aspect of her vivacious character to life in a way that might feel obnoxious in lesser hands but instead feels grounded and natural.

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With Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat, Casey and Murphy craft whip-smart jokes that cascade effortlessly throughout the film. Even within the first five minutes, they deliver multiple laugh-out-loud moments, like Lulu’s retort to “Slut” being scrawled on her locker or Mark’s spacey mother asking if their old neighbor Mrs. Rafferty is his newest crush. There’s also some cartoonish visual humor reminiscent of John Hughes films, such as a slow-motion close-up of a shopkeeper’s mouth delivering the bad news that a guitar costs $500, with his dialogue booming like an angry God.

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Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat takes all the familiar coming-of-age story beats — falling in love with the girl next door, losing virginity, the Debs (the Irish version of prom) — and puts them in a blender, with the added ingredient of self-awareness that rejects the former tropes found in these narratives. “Violence is the answer!” Mark emphatically declares while trying to think of ways to impress Lulu. He plans to stage a fight with his bullies, believing this show of masculinity will win her over. While other coming-of-age films would take this very seriously, Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat acknowledges how ridiculous that notion is. The scenes of Mark and Lulu’s bumbling sexuality — like when Mark admits he doesn’t know what a johnny (condom) is — present  a couple unafraid to openly discuss sexuality and vulnerability, unlike past teen movies that treat such misunderstandings purely as comic relief.

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At one point, Lulu asserts she is not a Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and the film resists framing her that way by giving her a backstory, perspective and a real voice in their relationship. Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat is self-aware enough to acknowledge these tropes, and smart enough to avoid fitting into them. Most importantly, Mark acknowledges in therapy that he knows it is not Lulu’s job to save him. He knows that his inability to find happiness — despite all the good things in his life — is entirely on him to solve. The scenes where Mark deals with depression and attends therapy oppose films like Garden State (2004) and Charlie Bartlett (2007) that reduce mental illness to a twee quirkiness. Instead of being a histrionic push toward healing, these therapy scenes focus on naturalistic conversations, and Casey gives his mousy character an unexpected depth in these understated moments.

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Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat needs some overall tightening and lingers a bit too long in the eccentric family scenes, but it all pays off with an unexpected and sweet ending. Casey and Murphy show a lot of promise with their incredible knack for humor.

Lulu and the Electric Dreamboat released digitally on March 21, 2025.

Caroline Madden (@crolinss) is the author of Springsteen as Soundtrack. She’s also a film critic who has written for Screen Queens, Reverse Shot, IndieWire and more. Caroline is the editor-in-chief of Video Librarian. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film reviews at Vague Visages.

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