Synchronic (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Synchronic (2019) – J. Benson & A. Moorhead

It must be challenging to think up good material, if you’ve decided to cultivate a certain kind of psychedelic WTF cinema (with or without twists in the plot). So, I must give credit to Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (directors of The Endless, 2017): they’ve come up with a fairly novel spin on an otherwise tired plot device (time travel).  And as with the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror films, these filmmakers take an outlandish premise and have their characters treat it as real, using logic and intelligence to deal with irrational events. However, there is a lot of half-baked philosophising here too and the film takes a long time to get to the good bits. Anthony Mackie (“Steve”) and Jamie Dornan (“Dennis”) play paramedics who encounter some grisly emergencies and begin to realise that they are all connected to a new designer drug, Synchronic. When Dennis’s 18-year-old daughter goes missing after taking the drug, Steve does some investigating of his own, including buying a smoke shop’s remaining supply and going on a few trips from/to their home base of New Orleans, in an effort to rescue her.  Ultimately, the central conceit works, although the emotional pay-off is muted at best – we don’t care enough about these guys to feel it – but they are our ticket to WTF-ness and it is worth the price of admission (this time).