Intensity 🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Michael Felker
Things Will Be Different mashes together three tropes that require finesse and careful mechanics. The film fuses a bank heist, a time paradox, and a “don’t cheat fate” theme, creating an intricate and complex plot. The story strings together an array of plot threads that could throw time out of balance. It elegantly presents its plot, but inevitably it challenges the audience to keep pace with the story.
Michael Felker, the longtime editor for the prolific directing duo of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, has learned from the time twist masters about how to create a cinematic puzzle. Both thematically and artistically this strongly resembles one of their joint efforts: Resolution (2012), Spring (2014), The Endless (2017), Synchronic (2019), and Something in the Dirt (2022). It never hurts to start with a baseline of being smart and good-looking. It is also highly ambitious. Perhaps too ambitious.
In his directorial debut feature film, Felker utilizes a beautiful set, thoughtful dialogue, and amusing devices to propel his vision. He and his DP Carissa Dorson have adapted the desaturated and gauzy beauty that often defines his production partner’s films. Ultimately, though, the success of this film rests on the commitment of two acting performances.
The Cast of Things Will Be Different:
- Adam David Thompson plays Joseph (Joe), a bank robber on the run, looking to repair his relationship with his estranged sister.
- Riley Dandy plays Sidney (Sid), Joe’s sister, and mother of a young girl for whom she took the risk of the bank robbery.
A Short Synopsis of Things Will Be Different:
Sid arrives at a small town cafe, armed with a hunting rifle. Joe is waiting for her in the cafe. Joe and Sid stole$7 million in a partially botched bank heist. They flee through vast fields of corn, heading to a secret hideout that Joe has arranged in advance. The house has a magic secret to make this the perfect crime. This remote farmhouse has a time portal to an alternate universe where they can shelter until the heat comes down. With police sirens blaring in the distance, they manipulate a grandfather clock and enter a door that transports them into the 1950s, successfully evading their pursuers.
The house came with a logbook/instruction manual that Joseph has been trying to decipher. The book directs them to wait 14 days, and then re-emerge through the portal, where they can return to their time, and Sidney can rejoin her young daughter, for whom they pulled off the heist. Joe and Sid try and reconnect since they have to wait a while in this mysterious house. Years of separation have stained their bonds, and this may be a good time to heal old grievances. Messages and supplies arrive from sources unknown through a wooden trunk. It delivers items of need including, curiously, a cassette recorder. (A double anachronism as it belongs neither in the present nor in the 1950s era to which they have been relocated.) Later on, a closet door amusingly transmits cryptic messages through spontaneous sign appearances. Somebody is watching over them.
Unfortunately, Joe and Sid are unfamiliar with the “rules” of the time paradox, and their anticipated departure date is compromised. Someone else has entered the time paradox, and their outside contacts have instructed them to eliminate this intruder. Days become weeks, and weeks become months, as Joe and Sid become stuck in this time trap, without sign of this mysterious interloper. The perpetrator finally arrives, armed with a high-powered rifle. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues. Getting back to their normal time and place is now in serious jeopardy, as well as their lives.
Evaluation:
For a simple premise, featuring only two characters for most of the film, this movie gets complicated in a hurry. All time travel movies come with the window dressing of the butterfly effect. What you do in the past may come to haunt you in the future. The branching of actions has layers of unforeseen consequences. Sid and Joe are smart enough to wrestle with the possible permutations. Who is this mysterious intruder that they have to deal with? Is it one of them in a past life? Might it be someone they betrayed in another timeline? Or, is it somebody completely random?
Not surprisingly, this movie feels like the Marvel show Loki, which deals with time crimes. Also not surprisingly, the showrunners for that production are Benson and Moorhead. Twisty time loops are a specialty of theirs. Combining the heist, paradox, and fate elements requires a lot of exposition. You really need to be paying attention at all times in order to connect the dots, and the further into the puzzle you get, the more difficult it becomes to track. One of my favorite details was the use of the cornfield. Oddly, a Field of Dreams allusion seems appropriate to generate a disconnection from reality into something more dreamy and temporal. The sense of isolation is pervasive, and the setting was key for that theme.
Kudos to Dandy and Thompson for delivering terrific performances. Sid and Joe are sympathetic leads, and they make reasonable decisions most of the time. There is little second-guessing of the characters here. I was also sympathetic to them, as the mystery proves as difficult for us as it is for them.
Because of the exposition, the movie bogs down to a slow pace at times. It opens with a bang and closes with plenty of thrills, but the middle of the movie feels weighed down by trying to explain all the permutations involved. This is undoubtedly a cerebral movie. Others have noted that this is a movie that deserves multiple viewings. To comprehend the paradox rules, multiple viewings are probably recommended. I applaud the ambition. I also would have liked a simpler or stronger through-line.
Conclusion:
I had the honor to interview Aaron Moorhead at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. He is rightfully proud of Felker’s work. It is very much in line with the style and substance of the films they have done together. It shares much of the intelligence and beauty of their other films. Things Will Be Different also triggers the same tripwires that sometimes occur in those films. The philosophy gets in the way of the entertainment value (slightly). Excellent performances and meaningful plots are also a hallmark of this cosmic corner of the horror genre.
The team of Moorhead, Benson, and Felker have always used science fiction trappings in their horror offerings. In this case, this may be closer to a science fiction thriller. In addition to the aforementioned collaborations, close company for this film would be Minority Report, 12 Monkeys, Donnie Darko, and Primer. That’s a pretty good neighborhood to reside in if you are a time paradox thriller.
Things Will Be Different does not have an MPAA rating. It probably warrants an R-rating for violence and language, but this isn’t a movie with a lot of objectionable content. Teens who enjoy high-minded science fiction would likely enjoy this film. It finished its festival run and it is now in a limited theatrical run. It is also available streaming on Amazon Prime and Fandango.
Review by Eric Li
