Radio Free Albemuth

Set in an alternate-reality 1985 America that’s under the authoritarian control of President Fremont (Scott Wilson, “In Cold Blood”), this adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s cult novel mixes a piquant critique of Nixon-era politics into a Mulligan stew of conspiracy theories. When Berkeley record-store owner Nick Brady (Jonathan Scarfe, “ER”) begins to experience strange visions, he claims that an entity he calls VALIS is giving him instructions. Following VALIS’s orders, Brady uproots his family and moves to LA, where he becomes a successful music-company executive. Aided by his best friend, a science-fiction writer named Philip K. Dick (Shea Whigam, “Wristcutters: A Love Story”), and a mysterious woman named Silvia (singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette), Nick attempts to uncover a dangerous political-mystical conspiracy of mind-bendingly cosmic proportions.