Things Will Be Different

The concept for Things Will Be Different (2024) sounded promising and definitely piqued my interest. Movies involving time travel can often be hit or miss, and unfortunately, this one missed the mark for me. The two lead actors do a decent job portraying their characters, and the movie is beautifully shot with an impressive visual style. However, the story and pacing are where it falls short.

The film raises numerous questions but only loosely answers a few. It takes nearly an hour for anything significant to happen, and even then, the movie remains barely engaging. This concept might have worked better as a short film or with a faster-paced script featuring more tension-filled scenes and action. Instead, the execution is too slow-paced, making it feel much longer than it actually is. Slow-paced movies can work when they don't feel slow, but in this case, you feel every minute.

Ultimately, the concept promised much more than the final result could deliver, so I can't recommend this one. [4.4/10]

A botched getaway and a time travel is not one of the usual mixes. Also the mood and set-up of the time travelling is unqiue. The deeper look at the broken family bonds, desperation and imprisonment is excellent. An imaginative story that breaks the usual trends. Great performances. Excellent audio effects and visual effects. It's puzzling but does it's duty in keeping the audience's eyes peeled.

The basic premise of TWBD is that two siblings, Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy), are robbers on the run from the law. They proceed through the woods to a farmhouse. They enter the house and by following some instructions in a notebook, they are able to exit through a closet door and reemerge, as it were, in a different time (but same farmhouse) to wait out the police for fourteen days.

So far, so good. And the cinematography (by Carissa Dorson) makes the most of the rural location.

Of course, Joseph and Sidney end up getting stuck in the farmhouse. They discover that the location actually functions as the "property" of a mysterious guide who speaks to them through a tape-recorder and is willing to help get them back to the present if they complete a specific task: the elimination of a mysterious (third) intruder. It is only toward the end that we learn just how fraught that task actually is.

TWBD does its best work through visuals: not just the facial expressions of the two principal actors, but the flashbacks to childhood (blurred images of a parental figure at a piano); the various (presumably alcoholic) beverages and vintage glassware that are a constant feature of TWBD; the trees, fields, and hills of the rural Midwest; the strange photographs, paintings and tchotchkes of the absent prior owners; etc. A second viewing is almost required to make sense of the visual displays that kaleidoscope and change constantly.

That said, the film is not as friendly in linking the narrative together for the viewer. But the thread is there. And there is a discernible conclusion, which in my view has to do with "breaking" a cycle of decisions, and the sacrifice required to do that.

A lot of viewers appear turned off by the temporal twists and non-obvious narrative. However, I think you might like this feature if you like, for example, Flanagan's own debut ("Abstentia"), the films of Isaac Ezban or Moorhead & Benson's "Synchronic" or "The Endless." (Benson has a part near the end. It is easy to see why he agreed, given the subject matter. Well, that and the fact that he is one of the Executive Producers. :-) )

I will certainly be looking out for Michael Felker's next film. This was an impressive debut.

I'm a fan of time travel movies and i'm always looking for new ideas in this genre. And it's not easy because the same cliches keep repeating (ha!) themselves. This movie SEEMS to be following the same path, but there's something about it that makes it different.

To decide whether to watch or not and to avoid disappointment, please note: location and cast are extremely limited, everything here is about suspense but not about action as such, the movie is disguised as a low-budget indie but in fact, it's well-made and well-acted, the plot and the acting have some rough edges, but everything is compensated by the last point - there's something to think about.

If these points are ok for you - go ahead.

The movie's premise was quite good. The siblings hide in a temporal B&B to avoid the law. However, they soon discover that leaving is not as easy as they thought. They can communicate with the people responsible for time travel using a tape recorder locked in a safe. They are tasked with confronting an adversary who appears later in the story.

The execution, however, leaves much to be desired. I agree with other reviewers: the cinematography is excellent, the sound and music are above average, and the acting ranges from superb (the brother) to good but somewhat forced (the sister). The main drawback of the movie is its screenplay. While it has potential, there are super boring parts interspersed with a few sudden twists. Moreover, many elements are either left unexplained or explained in a lacklustre manner.

Despite its shortcomings, I enjoyed the movie. It would have benefitted from being 30 minutes shorter, featuring more realistic sibling dialogues, and providing better explanations for a few key elements, for example, delving deeper into the adversary's identity. Still, it was more than satisfactory for a low-budget flick.

P. S.

A few other movies gave me similar vibes, most notably Timecrimes (2007), The Field (2019), and The Endless (2017).