"Synchronic" brings some timey-wimey goodness
Several months ago, I wrote about how much I enjoyed the low-budget sci-fi-horror movies Resolution and The Endless, both made by the same filmmakers — Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead wrote decent scripts and directed some solid character work, plus added some fun sci-fi scariness thrown in there. So when I saw that they had a new movie coming out starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan (and featuring a clearly higher budget than any of the filmmakers’ previous work), I was definitely intrigued. Synchronic actually got a (limited, obviously) theatrical run in late 2020, but just recently became available to stream.
Unsurprisingly for Benson and Moorehead’s work, Synchronic centres on the friendship between two men, paramedics Steve (Mackie) and Dennis (Dornan), who keep encountering a bunch of bizarre, seemingly impossible deaths during their shifts in New Orleans. One night, Dennis’s 18-year-old daughter disappears without a trace, and not long after, Steve is diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer that affects his pineal gland. And then Steve discovers that a designer drug called Synchronic might have something to do with all three of those things. Also unsurprisingly for a Benson and Moorhead film, time travel is involved.
On my podcast, we have a running joke about male filmmakers who want to be “the special-est time boy” — basically directors who get obsessed with the concept of time and just keep finding new ways of weaving various aspects of time travel throughout their work. Christopher Nolan DEFINITELY falls into this category, and it seems that Benson and Moorhead can be classified as special-est time boys as well, but in a much less jerking-oneself-off way than Nolan. I mean it in a much gentler, good-natured way here, as it’s clear that Benson and Moorhead love the concept of time but are actually interested in exploring it through their work, rather than using it to prove to people that they’re smarter than everyone else (ahem, Nolan).
Plus, again unlike Nolan, Benson and Moorhead actually put the effort in to create characters with personalities, desires, flaws, and relationships to other characters. Mackie and Dornan have pretty good chemistry here, and my main complaint is that their characters spend a good chunk of time apart in the movie. Narratively it makes sense, but when the real gem of your movie is the relationship and chemistry between the two leads, separating them for that long isn’t ideal.
That said, Benson and Moorhead make a good use of their increased budget in Synchronic — it’s clearly still not a HUGE budget, but they put it where it matters most. The special effects are really beautiful to look at and are used just enough to tell the story effectively without overwhelming the narrative.
And, honestly, it’s just nice to see more original stories from non-mainstream directors that take some narrative risks. I’ve enjoyed all of Benson and Moorhead’s work so far, and with Synchronic, it’s nice to see them grow and try their favourite tropes in new ways. I’m looking forward to seeing what they do next.
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That’s all for me today, gorgeous! Talk to you tomorrow.
Love,
Kat
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