Synchronic is another winner from Moorhead and Benson.
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If you've seen The Endless, Spring, or Resolution you know that filmmakers Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson like to view human relationships through a sci-fi horror lens. The Endless examined the unspoken tension between two brothers through Lovecraftian horror, Spring is a monster movie blended with romance, and Resolution is about two friends confronting their fraught history and a supernatural force. So it makes perfect sense that their latest film, Synchronic would view two men and their friendship through a horrifying time travel drug.
The Setup
Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan play Steve and Dennis, two best friends and coworkers, who work as paramedics in New Orleans. As difficult as their job is already, things take a turn for the strange and horrifying when they come across a series of horrific deaths linked to a new drug. A designer drug that allows people to travel through time...
I'm going to get my critiques of the film out of the way, because Synchronic is another solid genre blend from Moorhead and Benson that highlights similar ideas, themes, and techniques that they've used in previous films.
My main critique is that this movie takes a long time to get going. All of the film's building blocks are opened up in the first couple scenes, but we're over a third of the way through the movie before the plot kicks into gear including a lot of exposition and an inciting incident. It's not a deal-breaker, but I think that the film could blend its early character focus and plot a little better. That said, I really like this movie's straight-forward approach to its story once it does kick in. *Slight Spoilers Ahead*
The hook for this movie is that there's a new drug in town that allows people to briefly time travel. But depending on where and when they time travel to, this can be a lethal experience. Likewise, the drug is especially dangerous for teens because their pineal glands aren't fully developed, who may end up stuck in a different time. Which is exactly what happens to Dennis' teenage daughter.
At the same time Steve finds out that he has a brain tumor. But there's an upside. He also has the equivalent of a teenage pineal gland. Which means he can experiment with the drug to try and find Dennis' daughter.
From here the film highlights what makes Moorhead and Benson other films so great. A great blend of character and high concept sci-fi on a budget.
Once the plot is in high gear, the movie shifts between Steve's experiments to see how the drug works (with very mixed results) and a deconstruction/reconstruction of his friendship with Dennis.
See Steve and Dennis seem to view each other through an incomplete lens. Steve is tired of Dennis complaining about his loving wife, family, and marriage all of the time, especially since he's dealing with a cancer diagnosis and investigation to save Dennis' daughter on his own. Meanwhile Dennis seems to both envy Dennis' freedom and view his as irresponsible. Combine that with Dennis' daughter going missing and Steve's cancer and they have a lot of misunderstandings to reconcile, which this film does very well. Mackie and Dornan capture these characters very well and do an excellent job of stripping down their layers as the film moves on.
On the time travel end, I really like how this movie portrays it. In most time travel movies the destination is already predetermined. We're going to a specific time and place. That's not the case here. You could end up in the days of early humans, early colonization, or beyond. To capture this, the film imagines time travel as fading in and out of time and history. Like a sketchy picture that comes into view when everything loads. It's a great way to do this without a big effect budget. Also big props for the film for pointing out the pitfalls of a black man traveling back in time.
Steve's journey is also interesting because of what's left unsaid. As reckless as this may seem, it feels like Steve is trying to find some kind of purpose or usefulness for his disease. And taking the time travel drug gives him both. He's both able to unravel his old understanding of time, which makes confronting death a lot easier, and gives his cancerous pineal gland a purpose by using it to save his friend's daughter.
Verdict: Simple but Effective
Despite a slow start, Synchronic succeeds by grounding its high-minded premise with humanity. 7/10
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