The film stars Lily McInerny as a disconnected teenage girl falling into a relationship with a man (Jonathan Tucker) twice her age.

One night, as the group of friends eat at a diner, Lea makes eye contact with an older guy sitting at another table who winks at her on his way out.

When Lea asks Tom what he does for a living, he vaguely responds that he runs his own small business doing home repairs and remodeling, a job that grants him complete freedom.

Tom takes her to get food at a restaurant, and Lea uses an excuse to go to the restroom as an opportunity to leave, walking to a nearby gas station by herself.

[5][6] Dack said she was inspired to revisit the story and further explore themes of manipulation and consent due to a personal connection to the material and the MeToo movement, saying, "I was thinking a lot about some relationships I had when I was younger, and how, when I was in them I thought that I was in control of them and consciously choosing them for myself.

"[6][7] The script, which was written by Dack and Audrey Findlay, was constructed to show the different stages of grooming, including "targeting a victim, gaining their trust, filling a need, isolating them, and then whatever the abuse ends up being.

[16] In November 2022, Momentum Pictures acquired US and UK distribution rights to Palm Trees and Power Lines,[17] with a limited theatrical and VOD release on March 3, 2023.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Palm Trees and Power Lines tells a difficult story with searing skill – and marks Lily McInerny as a young actor with brilliant potential.

[20] K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone commented "This is a movie operating on the principle that the most routine form of this violence isn’t sensational, but subtle.

"[21] Writing for RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico called the film "a character study that’s anchored by a moving breakthrough performance from Lily McInerny, and one that ably supports and balances it from Jonathan Tucker.

"[22] Tomris Laffly of Harper's Bazaar wrote the film "goes somewhere even darker than Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, with a brave query into the notion of consent and a gut-wrenching parting note that feels like a scream stuck in one's throat.

"[23] Roxana Hadadi of Vulture wrote, "Tucker’s performance here is so mesmerizingly disquieting", and he uses "the ability to temper the predatory glint in his eye with soft-spoken sensitivity" to "tremendously unsettling effect".

[24] Hadadi added the film "doesn't deviate from where you predict it will go", but concluded "the relationship McInerny and Tucker build is so convincing in its mixture of exploitation and yearning that Palm Trees and Power Lines capably secures what Lea desires most too: your attention.

"[24] While some critics said the film felt "frustratingly underdeveloped",[25][26] Richard Brody of The New Yorker conceded, "the revelation of [Tom's true intent], when it arrives, is a shock nonetheless, to Lea and to viewers...[becoming] clear in a powerful, agonizing scene that Dack films with a supreme inspiration of empathy and understanding distilled into a single, fixed-frame, five-minute-plus shot, during which the anguish of anticipation yields to terror and revulsion.