Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead
Written by Justin Benson
Starring Jamie Dornan, Anthony Mackie and Katie Aselton
Running time 1 hour and 36 minutes
MPAA rating: R for drug content and language throughout and for some violent/bloody images

by Hunter Bush

I really like those Moorehead & Benson boys. They seem like good people. I first got into them slightly before their previous flick The Endless premiered but their names quickly rose high atop my Pay Attention To -list. Starting with Resolution in 2012, then through Spring in 2014 and The Endless in 2017, they’ve proven to be writers/directors/performers who know how to deliver big ideas on modest budgets. But, though Synchronic shows their production values increasing, their ideas are no less expansive.

Where some of their previous efforts have had that particular Lovecraftian flavor of existential horror, Synchronic reminded me of Phillip K. Dick right out of the gate. Not a bad thing when dealing with the tropes they are here: designer drugs, the nature of reality and how it only exists the way it does because we think it does. But Benson & Moorehead don’t just approach big concepts, but also big issues. For better or worse.

Synchronic stars Anthony Mackie as a paramedic in New Orleans in a setting that is only ever-so-slightly science fiction. During a few days on the job, Mackie, along with his co-paramedic and BFF Jamie Dornan, encounters a few unnatural deaths linked to a designer street drug - the titular Synchronic - that defy rational explanation: a man falls from a second floor elevator shaft and explodes on impact as though falling from a much greater height; a woman is bitten by a poisonous snake in an environment highly unlikely to produce such an animal; someone burns to death via apparent spontaneous human combustion in the central plaza of an abandoned amusement park, etc. The only thing linking them is the presence of the drug. After Dornan’s teenage daughter Brianna suddenly disappears at a party where the drug was present, Mackie makes it his mission to figure out what’s going on and find a way to rescue her.

Okay, from here on in I’m going to talk a little more in-depth about the plot. I dunno if this will all technically count as “SPOILERS”, but if you want to go into this movie blind (as I largely did), skip down to the last three paragraphs.

So the drug Synchronic allows you to briefly experience a different point in time via chemical manipulation of the pineal gland in your brain. Unless you’re a kid, like Brianna (Ally Ioannides) or have an abnormality like Steve (Mackie) meaning your pineal is still flexible, in which case you physically go to that point in time. A trip typically only lasts a few minutes, but there are unforeseen rules and guidelines about how everything works. Some of this info comes from the chemist responsible for Synchronic’s creation, delivered in a monologue that’s kind of objectively silly but feels like it’s very inclusion is done as a wink to the genre audience. It was during this info-dump that the movie felt the most truly genre-friendly to me. It felt like Justin Benson acknowledging that we’re all here to see a fun sci-fi movie, so let’s get the rationalization out of the way so we can start playing in that space. Your mileage may vary, as they say, but it worked for me and was honestly an approach that I think might have benefitted other aspects of the flick.

Specifically, the friendship at the film’s core. It’s not that I have anything against Dennis (Dornan) or his wife Tara (Katie Aselton), but they really only exist in the script because Steve needs a strong tie to Brianna in order to potentially risk his life rescuing her. Part of me actually applauds the choice to just make it a best friend’s kid who Steve has known for her entire life and not just his own kid because it’s more interesting and speaks more to who Steve is. My problem lies in the fact that without dividing up the screen time to develop Dennis & Tara as characters and expand their relationship, this movie could be a tour de force solo vehicle for Anthony Mackie. As it is, he’s absolutely fantastic in the film, but making it a two-hander, of sorts, takes the spotlight off him a bit too much for me.

There are capital-R Reasons why I guess Brianna couldn’t just be Steve’s kid (interesting though that choice is) and they make sense but still, with a little rekajiggering of the plot and characters, this fully becomes Anthony Mackie’s movie and, in any other year, possibly helps launch him to the level of stardom that he is clearly just shy of. As I said, he’s fantastic here. You start the film off kind of unsure if you even like Steve as a person but come to, not only understand him, sympathize and empathize with him but also respect him and the difficult choices that he makes. That Moorehead & Benson can deliver such a strong character for an actor to latch onto in the middle of a high-concept sci-fi picture is exactly why they’ve sat high on that aforementioned Pay Attention To -list.

That said, Synchronic isn’t the home run I was hoping it would be. As I mentioned, I like these boys and want good things for them and was hoping this would be an undeniable hit (inherent difficulties of a 2020 release date aside) but I don’t think they’ve quite done it here. It’s still a strong step forward from indie-quality to studio-quality work and, at times, you can see those two worlds butting up against each other in Synchronic. It has a unique core concept realized with the aid of eye-catching visuals, wrapped around a sobering character piece with plenty of depth and dimension.

Where things lose a step for me is in messaging. It seems that Benson wanted to at least address the concept that time travel, in any form, would only really be “fun” or “exciting” or anything less than “terrifying” if you’re a white male. A fair fucking point to be sure, but the moments it’s touched on feel superfluous, like perhaps they weren’t part of the original concept. And believe it or not, I have a theory about that. I don’t think this was originally conceived as being set in New Orleans. I have no knowledge of any of this but I’ve heard New Orleans is a pretty friendly location to film, budget-wise. Perhaps then, after scouting locations and getting a feel for the city, knowing its history, the topic of race and how it would affect this type of genre flick came up and the decision was made to address it.

I can only imagine how difficult it is to approach a script that is both Character Piece and High Concept while attempting to deal with a Major Issue in this way, but there’s just something about the execution that doesn’t feel fully baked into Synchronic. The final shot, for instance, of two men of different eras shaking hands feels like it comes from a different film entirely, one that is inherently about race and history and deals with the weight of those themes more thoroughly.

Pseudo-SPOILERS end, btw. None of this is to say that Synchronic fails. Benson & Moorehead have taken a Philip K. Dick-ian conceit, but expanded it to dimensions Dick rarely travelled to: outside of oneself. I’m a big fan of Dick y’see. You heard me. I wouldn’t consider myself a Dick expert exactly, but let’s just say I’m an enthusiastic amateur. But seriously, PKD was most concerned with reality as a reflection of the individual experience. When he created an amazingly realized parallel world where the Axis forces won World War II (The Man in the High Castle), he did so to question the nature of reality and what one man’s art could do to change it, as much as to question the nature of good and evil. By combining this PKD-esque approach with the Lovecraftian themes they’ve cut their teeth on, Moorehead & Benson have made a bold stylistic move forward.

I see great things in the future for Benson & Moorehead. Call me a cynic but, I’d guess that after the year we’re all having, a lot more people will be more receptive to a bit of the old existential dread in their entertainments and that’s something the pair have approached from different angles in their work. Even in Synchronic, amidst everything else that is going on, we’re watching in near real time as Anthony Mackie realizes just how small he is (and we are) in the scope of EVERYTHING and how you have to learn where and how you matter most if you want to matter at all.

Simply put: Synchronic is a tremendous stride for its key players. It signals two filmmakers progressing into grander arenas and showcases a powerhouse performance from an actor who deserves to become a known commodity outside of MCU fandom households. It’s entertaining and unique and left me hoping someone will give them all Chris Nolan money to approach their themes their way.

Synchronic gets a theatrical and drive-in release on Oct. 23rd, and comes to VOD in January.