The Calm Before the Temporal Storm
A burgeoning interest in Synchronic triggered excitement in the hearts of time travel devotees and psychological thriller enthusiasts alike. The integration of time travel with intense psychological elements and emotional depth offered a welcome change in a visually overwhelming thriller. With only high-concept films to his name, like The Endless, and most of the genre-defining indie films, the expectation from Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, was Synchronic, and with it to, perhaps advancing the borders of film-making.
Starring in Synchronic, Anthony Mackie, and Jamie Dornan played two New Orleans paramedics who discover a drug with the ability to alter time. Taking on the role and Mackie, was in a transition in his career and looking to move beyond superhero. Mackie, was in a transition in his career and looking to move beyond superhero. Bronan, having moved beyond the shadows of the stark adaptations, was looking to ground his approaches to more complex and realistic character. Together they formed the emotional core.
Time as a Mirror of Emotion
At first glance, “Synchronic” appears to focus on a synthetic drug that affects the perception of time. However, beyond that, it captures a powerful metaphor of time as a prison and a release. Mackie’s character Steve is battling the awareness of a brain tumor and his own mortality, while Dornan’s character Dennis is desperately trying to hold on to a disintegrating family. All four characters are tormented by time, and time reflects those inner struggles.
Connecting cosmic mystery with personal loss is what Steve’s character (and by extension the audience) tries to understand in the drug. All his life Steve has tried to make sense of time and, in the process, “saved” Dennis’s missing family. As the plot progresses, each drug-infused “discovery” becomes futile and all the more an exercise in embracing unspeakable fate.
It’s the emotional layering that resonates deeply with audiences and that is, I think, what makes Synchronic special. Time is not something we puzzle over, it is the return we perhaps yearn for.
Parallels Behind the Faces
Mackie and Dornan brought some of their real life experience to the roles they played, if only by accident. Mackie, born and raised in New Orleans, was able to make that emotional connection. The sad and heavy rhythm of the city, shaped by history and culture, and loss, was akin to the emotional landscape of the character he played. In some of his interviews, he talked about how being able to shoot in his hometown added authenticity to the performance.
On the other hand, Dornan has often articulated the emotional struggle of trying to balance his career and family. That struggle is reflected in his performance of Dennis, a man trying to keep his family together in the midst of chaos. There is a deep honesty in his performance and we can feel it, the weary eyes of a man trying to hold everything together.
Their chemistry is so strong it feels almost brotherly. There is no hyperbole and no forced dialogue. Simply two men facing an unresolved suffering.
A Story Told in Shadows and Light
Synchronic embraces The intimacy of filmmaking and embraces the big themes of life and death and time. Synchronic gracefully employs. Throughout the film, the directors, Jeremy. Benson and. Moorhead, creatively manipulated the lighting and. camera perspective to oscillate and move. the audience back and forth in time, highlighting the surreal and the drug. most of the time, it. self. Most teleological transitions are. ethereal. These transitions to different time points in the story are most reminiscent. of memories. and dreams.
The visual Polar opposites. of death and life, despair and. the deep rich blue and. death and life the deep and rich blue and. soft. the deep blue and soft rich orange. Rhthm of despair. deep. dark rich. the despair and deep dark rich blue. The sound of despair deep rich blue, Rhthm, the sound paradigm shifts.
Synchronic draws connections to Interstellar and Arrival. Synchronic is smaller in scope and. lacks the. galactic focus. Within time, this once. simple focus, is now. complex, Synchronic, simple. not using time. focus in Synchronic.
The Buzz, the Hype, and What Followed
The period leading up to the release of Synchronic has been characterized more by quiet curiosity than by exuberant fanfare. It was first shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, where early audiences commented on its emotional resonance and innovative quality. Given the movie’s themes of mortality and the passage of time, it was particularly impactful for audiences during the pandemic.
Rather than a tragic ending, many audiences found solace in the purpose and peace of Steve’s final actions. It was more about letting go than loss. The balance of innovative, and at times, emotionally challenging, science fiction was acknowledged by many discussions on the social platforms, and for this, the directors were praised. It is a balance that, in contemporary cinema, only a small number of films manage to achieve.
What You Don’t See on Screen
Synchronic was, and remains, something of a low budget challenge. The financial constraints resulted in the authors finding more inventive ways of obtaining locations, and for special effects, much of the emotional performance and atmospheric cinema took the place of special effects.
It is worth mentioning that the directors also oversaw the editing and visual design, completing all the creative and technical work. This is likely how the film maintained consistency throughout. Mackie, who is known for his work ethic, spent a great deal of time constructing Steve’s character, even polishing some of the dialogue to make it more authentic to New Orleans.
One of the less talked about creative choices the filmmakers made was to use minimal CGI for the ‘time-travel’ scenes. This choice made the time travel scenes more surreal and grounded in reality and made it less jarring for the audience.
A Film About The Time We Can’t Get Back
Ultimately, Synchronic is a reflection of what is crucial about life, and the elements of a science fiction film serve merely to enhance the story. Time is the key factor in the story of friendship, loss, and discovery is to be cherished, not conquered.
For Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan, Synchronic became more than a movie. It was, in their own ways, a reminder for both of them to embrace the moments that mean the most.
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