Things Will Be Different

Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy) meet up at a diner. They are both armed and carrying a bag of money. They go to a pre-selected farm house. There is a specific procedure of changing the clocks, opening a door, and dialing a phone in the dark. They arrive back to the house which is fully stocked. Their plan is to stay there for two weeks and wait out the cops.

This is a low-budget high-concept sci-fi crime drama. I like the general premise and the curious door procedure to start the story. The problem is that it doesn't entice the audience to invest in these two characters. These are not famous faces and they don't have any exposition. Once things start going wrong, the rules are not clear. Nothing is that clear in this movie. The reveal is the reveal. I expected something like it. It's fine. The overall execution is a bit lacking.

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).

Not sure where the horror was supposed to come in but I'll move on from that

The scifi is time travel and an interesting concept

Now maybe if they script writers could have wrote some interesting things to happen or twists or turns or them finding things but nope

Instead you get to watch almost two hours of two bumbling stupid american siblings argue and act like alcoholics

Then at the end they try to throw in some cheap twist and if anything it ruins any kind of story they were trying to build

Stupid movie - stupid characters - stupid tropes

Honestly even my 4/10 review is pushing it this was a complete waste of time.

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]

I give it 6 stars because although it kind of comes together in the end, the plot is very intriguing. It keeps you guessing and forming your opinions heavily throughout the film. It had a feel like the movie "The Endless" where the characters are stuck in this loop only it was a bit harder to understand. What the endless had that this movie doesn't have is an ending that sufficed although it couldn't really be explained. This movie had me staring at the screen for a minute after it went off still trying to figure out the hows and whys. I liked the acting very much. All in all it's a good movie with subpar explanations. In the end they tied it together but again with no clear explanation to how "the enemy" even got there or who that person was looking for.