Synchronic

There's been a million and one films about the dangers of drug abuse. There's been a bucketload of films about the dangers of time travel. But has there ever been a film that combined the two? I'd be telling a lie if I knew but now's your chance to find out what happens when legal highs and hitting the past are combined. Hint - it's not good.

Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan). Lifelong friends. Working together as parademics in a crime ridden New Orleans. Dennis is unhappy in his marriage and Steve has just received some grim medical news. Life isn't fun for either and things get worse when a new drug called Synchronic (heh) causes it's users to drop like flies. But these aren't normal overdoses. Bodies are found smashed to bits, burnt to a crisp, bitten by creatures they can't possibly have been bitten by. It seems Synchronic's trippy effects aren't just psychological, it's actually moving it's users through space and time and when Dennis's teenage daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides) takes some and goes missing it's up to Steve to get her back.

This one took a while to get going but when it did it turned into one of the most interesting and enjoyable new releases in quite a while. It's built on well thought out and well released ideas and buoyed by a game turn from Anthony Mackie as a man trying to turn a wasted life into something meaningful. With his last few years (and the next few to come) being dominated by the all consuming Marvel machine you'd forget that's he's an actor capable of turning in affecting performances and he does very well here, turning what could have been a one note cypher into someone you'll give a shit about. Especially in that scene when.....you'll know it when it happens. Jamie Dornan as Dennis doesn't get much to do apart from moan but between them there's a friendship that feels genuine, with the love and barbs that always play part and parcel.

Jamie Dornan might get top billing too but the real supporting actor in this is New Orleans itself. This is a story that couldn't really have played out anywhere else, a city still burned by recent (Katrina) and distant (Ku Klux Klan, Conquistadors, slavery) trauma and we get to see how Steve interacts with all of it. Directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead sneak in a telling commentary on race relations in America here too. A black man going into the past is never going to have a good time. Time travel is only easy if you look like Marty McFly it seems. It's well worked in and adds another layer to an already intelligent take on time travel stories.

Time travel is the main draw here and the process is depicted cleverly with no burning tire tracks, no blink and you're there jump cuts, just a slow dissolve in and out, an organic feeling trip into the past that's actually quite beautiful in places.......before it gets terrifying that is. But there's plenty of fun to be had seeing Steve working out the kinks and his profane reactions to it all add a sense of humour to a heavy going story that gets quite intense at times.  

Synchronic is streaming online now. If a blend of Bringing Out The Dead and Back To The Future sounds like your cup of tea you'll have a good time sipping this one. Sorry.