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Synchronic
Two paramedics with very different lives come across strange occurences during their job and that leads one of them into a weird path.
The directors of this movie are independent low budget directors who made some very weird movies in the past. Their ammo is the very niche subgenre of gritty realistic sci-fi fantasy horror movies. There is a fantasy element that affects a sci-fi aspect and the result is felt in real time and effects are felt on reality in the movie. Their past 3-4 movies I am aware of deal with this concept. This is a step up for them in terms of cast and budget.
The thing I like about them is, the core idea/concept that excites them to make a movie is almost always awesome in their entire filmography. Due to their budget limitations they can't help but make a realistic movie no matter how sci-fi their ideas are so it kinda gives this chris nolan effect to their movies. Where in the sci-fi elements can feel like they can happen in real life. Which is way more potent than unbelievable back to the future type sci-fi. So coming back to this movie, the weirdness they encounter in their job as paramedics involves coming across people dying in strange unbelievable manner. Due to their job they only see the after effect of it. They don't really know how it happens. Their job is just to medically treat the patients and let detectives investigate. But as audience we notice the strangeness of the deaths a little out there. A guys in a suburban house dies from a sword wound. A woman in an apartment dies of a snake bite. At first they chalk it up to a drug called synchronic found near the dead bodies.
The one of the paramedics played by anthony mackie finds out that he is terminally ill and that kinda wants to make him take some action about the deaths he is encountering in his job. So he goes out to the neighbourhood drug store and buy out all the synchronic drugs in the store. When he is leaving the store he comes across a man willing to buy drugs from him but mackie refuses. But the person follows him home and hides in his closet at night. When mackie discovers him and threatens to call police the man reveals that he is the inventor of synchronic and due to some mistakes with the chemical formula of the drug it is able to transport people back in time and that is causing people to get killed because the more past we go the more dangerous it is for people from the present. Even the inventor don't know the full effects of the drug. But what he does notice is that due to the illness of mackie he can essentially travel back in time for longer periods of time as opposed to fraction of time normal adults experience. At first he doesn't believe but since he is dying anyway mackie wants to give it a try.
This is the most interesting part of the movie. The key to time travel thrill in any film is the fish out of water aspect of it. The initial moments of time travel are the best when the character finds out he is in a different time period. The longer he is in it the less exciting it becomes. This movie finds out a way to keep that freshness for the entirety by limiting duration of stay in a different period to 6 minutes and anything more than that the character can't come back. What follows next is a couple of time travel trials to figure out the rules of the game. And the rules are, based on the spot you are at while taking the drug you are transported to a different time and place. He goes to a marsh land filled with alligators in louisiana and encounters a french conquistador and is able to escape and get back in time. Then he goes to ice age and witnesses a cave man and a mammoth from a different spot in his living room. He goes to racist southern farmer's house around civil war period at night and during this trial he realizes that he has to be at the same spot where he travelled from in order to go back and if not he will be stuck forever. So his drug count is down by half after these attempts.
Now his partner enters into the picture, who is played by jamie dornan. He is a family man with a kinda troubled daughter. One day she disappears and when mackie is called into it as a paramedic, he puts 2 and 2 together and notices that its because of synchronic. So he takes the drug and goes to a civil war battle field. Where we notice his daughter hiding in a trench. Mackie stays behind but sends the daughter back knowing that there is nothing for him to come back to as he will die due to his illness and chooses to stay behind in the civil war era knowing that he did something good and he could die a faster death being on the battle ground.
What I liked about that is, there are juicy sci-fi thrills and concepts there. As soon as you start getting bored of a time period the characters comes out of it. So audience are treated to a fresh thrill during each time travel attempt. I like idea of paramedics coming across this drug and its after effects. Because that is the most realistic scenario and the movie kinda blends the unsettling vibe of a place after something bad happens like some died or something like that and paramedics arrive with the creepy after effects of time travel. So the tone is also interesting. It has chronicle movie vibes. The places they choose are also very interesting. There is also a little bit of creepy vibe to it. Biggest drawback is, that the movie only scratched the surface. The ideas are too many and they didn't have time to flesh them out. So the screenplay comes off as weak and thin. Nonetheless the ideas are worth admiring. Its not too deep of a concept but it's interesting approach to time travel on low budget.
Two paramedics with very different lives come across strange occurences during their job and that leads one of them into a weird path.
The directors of this movie are independent low budget directors who made some very weird movies in the past. Their ammo is the very niche subgenre of gritty realistic sci-fi fantasy horror movies. There is a fantasy element that affects a sci-fi aspect and the result is felt in real time and effects are felt on reality in the movie. Their past 3-4 movies I am aware of deal with this concept. This is a step up for them in terms of cast and budget.
The thing I like about them is, the core idea/concept that excites them to make a movie is almost always awesome in their entire filmography. Due to their budget limitations they can't help but make a realistic movie no matter how sci-fi their ideas are so it kinda gives this chris nolan effect to their movies. Where in the sci-fi elements can feel like they can happen in real life. Which is way more potent than unbelievable back to the future type sci-fi. So coming back to this movie, the weirdness they encounter in their job as paramedics involves coming across people dying in strange unbelievable manner. Due to their job they only see the after effect of it. They don't really know how it happens. Their job is just to medically treat the patients and let detectives investigate. But as audience we notice the strangeness of the deaths a little out there. A guys in a suburban house dies from a sword wound. A woman in an apartment dies of a snake bite. At first they chalk it up to a drug called synchronic found near the dead bodies.
The one of the paramedics played by anthony mackie finds out that he is terminally ill and that kinda wants to make him take some action about the deaths he is encountering in his job. So he goes out to the neighbourhood drug store and buy out all the synchronic drugs in the store. When he is leaving the store he comes across a man willing to buy drugs from him but mackie refuses. But the person follows him home and hides in his closet at night. When mackie discovers him and threatens to call police the man reveals that he is the inventor of synchronic and due to some mistakes with the chemical formula of the drug it is able to transport people back in time and that is causing people to get killed because the more past we go the more dangerous it is for people from the present. Even the inventor don't know the full effects of the drug. But what he does notice is that due to the illness of mackie he can essentially travel back in time for longer periods of time as opposed to fraction of time normal adults experience. At first he doesn't believe but since he is dying anyway mackie wants to give it a try.
This is the most interesting part of the movie. The key to time travel thrill in any film is the fish out of water aspect of it. The initial moments of time travel are the best when the character finds out he is in a different time period. The longer he is in it the less exciting it becomes. This movie finds out a way to keep that freshness for the entirety by limiting duration of stay in a different period to 6 minutes and anything more than that the character can't come back. What follows next is a couple of time travel trials to figure out the rules of the game. And the rules are, based on the spot you are at while taking the drug you are transported to a different time and place. He goes to a marsh land filled with alligators in louisiana and encounters a french conquistador and is able to escape and get back in time. Then he goes to ice age and witnesses a cave man and a mammoth from a different spot in his living room. He goes to racist southern farmer's house around civil war period at night and during this trial he realizes that he has to be at the same spot where he travelled from in order to go back and if not he will be stuck forever. So his drug count is down by half after these attempts.
Now his partner enters into the picture, who is played by jamie dornan. He is a family man with a kinda troubled daughter. One day she disappears and when mackie is called into it as a paramedic, he puts 2 and 2 together and notices that its because of synchronic. So he takes the drug and goes to a civil war battle field. Where we notice his daughter hiding in a trench. Mackie stays behind but sends the daughter back knowing that there is nothing for him to come back to as he will die due to his illness and chooses to stay behind in the civil war era knowing that he did something good and he could die a faster death being on the battle ground.
What I liked about that is, there are juicy sci-fi thrills and concepts there. As soon as you start getting bored of a time period the characters comes out of it. So audience are treated to a fresh thrill during each time travel attempt. I like idea of paramedics coming across this drug and its after effects. Because that is the most realistic scenario and the movie kinda blends the unsettling vibe of a place after something bad happens like some died or something like that and paramedics arrive with the creepy after effects of time travel. So the tone is also interesting. It has chronicle movie vibes. The places they choose are also very interesting. There is also a little bit of creepy vibe to it. Biggest drawback is, that the movie only scratched the surface. The ideas are too many and they didn't have time to flesh them out. So the screenplay comes off as weak and thin. Nonetheless the ideas are worth admiring. Its not too deep of a concept but it's interesting approach to time travel on low budget.