Justin Benson (The Endless and Spring) reiterates his interest in the fabrics of time by paving the way for a gut-wrenching quest that pushes the boundaries of the linear chronological flow. A new, unheard-of synthetic drug is making its way around New Orleans’ various nooks and crannies, triggering a series of inexplicable deaths and casualties. The bromance between the two paramedics introduces us to the effects of synchronic, for which Steve (Anthony Mackie), gifted with an unusually youthful pineal gland, takes full responsibility. When Brianna (Ally Ioannides) goes missing, he sets off on a perilous but fascinating quest that will end up costing him more than what he bargained for.
In order to gradually present the idea of time as an illusion, the director relies on a highly dynamic camera work that slickly manages to capture the blurry line between linear and circular time. However, the latter does not get explored in-depth, leaving the viewer longing for answers as to what ‘time’ truly is. Aside from displaying the time-bending drug and the hazards that come with it, the plot does not leave enough space for what could have been a mind-blowing revelation, something that could have dramatically reconfigured humans’ very comprehension of time.
Instead, the director justly centers his critique around a more relevant subject: the overly-romanticized idea of living in the past. This social commentary on how most individuals who have never experienced real oppression tend to look back at the past through rose-colored glasses somehow compensates for the lack of information about the tangible nature of time and how intriguing it would have been to go down that path.
The cliffhanger on which the film ends makes it rather clear that if you happen to choose this film expecting a hero’s journey à la Marty Mcfly, you’ll be sorely disappointed. The viewer will soon find out that the real horror does not necessarily reside only within the eerie consequences of temporal travel, but it manifests itself through the hideous face of white supremacy and the agonizing possibility of ending up stuck in a bigoted and therefore dangerous timeline. Recommended.