3+1 Short Paragraphs: Synchronic

 2020, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead (Spring) -- download

To say I love these guy's small body of work is just a given. Rarely these days, even before The Pause, do I pay full attention to anything, but their movies just ask, nay require you to pay full attention. With their fourth feature, they were provided with a bit more budget, enough to hire some recognizable faces and expand upon the visual effects. In my mind, they produced another strong, thoughtful piece of scifi, despite what some critics at large will tell you.

Steve (Anthony Mackie, Avengers: Infinity War) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan, 50 Shades of Grey) are EMTs and best friends, in New Orleans. Dennis is a family man, challenged by his role as a husband and a father, while Steve is still single, still acting like a teenager, drinking and fucking most nights away. Their day to day (night to night?) is interrupted by the emergence of a new drug on the street -- synchronic -- which leads to some very very odd calls, such as the guy stabbed by a sword, which is found embedded in the wall, half melted. And then the worst thing happens for Steve, as he is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, one that has actually contributed to his teenager ways, literally leaving his brain chemically young at heart. And the worst thing happens for Dennis, as his daughter Brianna becomes a victim of synchronic -- she is gone, just... gone.

Steve feels the loss of Brianna deeply, she is just beginning her life, while his is ending, and he sees how it is destroying the already tenuous family life of his best friend. So, he strives to find all of the drug, but instead of destroying it all, he experiments with it and comes to understand just what has happened to Brianna -- the drug allows you to travel backwards in time. In a fun and sometimes chilling montage, we see Steve doing literal controlled experiments, determining its parameters, all with the intention of going back and finding Brianna, to return her to her family.

Like their other movies, this one is more thoughtful than it is active. The movie parks itself inside Steve's headspace, and allows us to understand what is going on with him, how he feels about his mostly wasted life, his envy and frustration with his best friend who doesn't cherish what he has, how he wants to deal with the coming end. Its moody in colours and soundscape, usually at night, with none of the touristy flair for being set in New Orleans. The plot is not as much a headscratcher as their other flicks, as it doesn't even want to understand the drug itself, so its more about the man and the past, and his connections in the present.