Synchronic Movie Review

Synchronic (2019)

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Written by: Justin Benson
Directed by: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Two New Orleans paramedics' lives are ripped apart after they encounter a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.

Verdict
This starts well and the premise is intriguing, but it never takes off. Instead this adds a lot of backstory that doesn't aid the characters and a lot of ideas that feel like misdirection. The asynchronous order of scenes makes it unnecessarily complicated, perhaps to hide the simplicity of the plot. This is a great concept, but the script needs an overhaul.
Skip it.

Review
The opening scene is a great hook as a couple's trip becomes something much more. I like the EMT angle. Steve and Dennis (Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan) are seeing the aftermath of a designer drug, trying to piece together what's happening. Does this drug make things manifest out of thin air? Does it mix up time? Scientifically there's no way the drug does what the movie purports, but it's a fun idea for a movie.

Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie play Dennis and Steve.

There's a lot of character background, but half way in this basically becomes Steve's story. I don't know why he didn't tell Dennis what he's up to. Budget sci-fi movies often feature a character testing a hypothesis after discovering something that defies logic. It's a way to limit characters and locations. Synchronic didn't seem like that type of movie.

We're not sure if what Steve is seeing is real or just his imagination. Is he time traveling or is the drug causing him to think so. I like the idea of this movie and where I think it's going, or at least what it wants us think. I wondered if what we were seeing was misdirection for a larger reveal. 

Steve does finally tell Dennis, but we get to that part of the movie quite late. It becomes much too easy to see where the script is going, falling into tropes. The movie adds a lot of character background which feels like fluff. With scenes happening out of order it's another complication that seems like the movie filling time. I really like the concept, but the script needs a rewrite.