SYNCHRONIC (2020)
Label: Well Go USA
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 101 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton, Ally Ioannides, Bill Oberst Jr.
New Orleans ambulatory paramedics Steve (Anthony Mackie, Avengers: Infinity War) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan, Marie Antoinette) see people at their worst, their job is a non-stop parade of carnage and personal tragedies that are are disturbing and sometimes gruesome to behold. From car accidents, to suicides and drug-addled junkies overdosing they have seen it all, but lately what they are seeing goes beyond the pale in terms of how inexplicable it seems. During their recent shifts they've seen a woman bitten by venous snake on the second floor of a hotel, a man who seems to have fallen seven stories down an elevator shaft to his death, what looks to be spontaneous human combustion at a condemned theme park, and a man with a wound that looks like he was run through with sword. These disparate events and tragedies do have a singular commonality though, the presence of an recently discontinued over-the-counter designer psychedelic drug called Synchronic.
Steve and Dennis have been longtime friends dating back to their college days, but their lives seem quite different on the surface. Dennis is a family man with a wife Tara (Katie Aselton, She Dies Tomorrow), an eighteen year-old teenage daughter named Brianna (Ally Ioannides, TV's Into The Badlands) and a newborn baby. Meanwhile Steve is a perpetual bachelor with a taste for alcohol who seems to prefer one-night stands to an actual committed relationship, spending most of his down time drinking alone with his loyal pooch Hawking. They live different lives but both seem equally unhappy in their own way, seemingly trapped by their lifestyles, lost and floating in a fog of melancholia. The film from the start has an ominous vibe, and things only get worse when Dennis's daughter Brianna goes missing while attending a drug-party, the only evidence left behind is a wrapper for the designer drug Synchronic.
At about the same time Steve is diagnosed with a terminal and inoperable brain tumor affecting his pineal gland, a diagnosis which he chooses to keep to himself, what with the disappearance of Brianna already causing distress. The disappearance of Brianna is a strain on Dennis's marriage, which begins to spiral out of control the longer she goes missing, meanwhile Steve starts to believe that the designer drug is directly related to Brianna's disappearance. As Dennis begins to drown in misery of his failing marriage Steve starts to spend more time alone away from his friend. He begins to experiment with Synchronic at home, hoping to better understand the drug's effects in hopes of tracking down Brianna, never expecting it to turn into a the single-minded obsession that it does, which leads to him travelling through time and space in an effort to recover his best friend's daughter.
The movie all along has been hinting at Synchronic being something more than a recreational hallucinatory designer drug, a bewildering and hallucinagenic opening scene slowly begins to come into focus the more the film reveals it's secrets, and eventually with the help of the chemist who invented it we get a not too offensive information dump which lays it all out, which is the impetus of Steve discovering the secret of Synchronic-fueled time-travel. I won't go onto spoil much more than I already have because I think this is a film worth seeing with fresh eyes. It's a weird and wonderful watch with both a lot of heart and a far-reaching scope that is nicely realized with some impressive visual effects work. It's a surreal and mind-warping thrill ride that will have Steve encountering swampland conquistadors, vintage Klan members, strange voodoo rituals, swashbuckling pirates and even a wooly mammoth!
Co-directors Benson and Moorhead have made string of personal sci-fi films with stuff like Resolution (2012), Spring (2014), The Endless (2017), all of which I have enjoyed, but what we are seeing with Synchronic is their ascension to the next-level of their careers, and I hope it opens some eyes and doors for them. It is great to see them working with a bigger - though still modest budget. Benson's script-writing is stronger, the story has more poignancy and drive, and the cinematography by Moorehead has evolved and is more assured and imaginative, plus the special effects are fantastic. I love the way that the time-travel aspect of the story are depicted with a melting effect that feels fresh, along with the mechanics and physics of it all. It was also great to see actor Bill Oberst Jr. (Dis) show up in a particularly awesome scene towards the finale of the movie, he's only in it for a bit but as usual he makes quite an impression!
Audio/Video: Synchronic (2019) arrives on Blu-ray from Well Go USA in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The digital shot film looks quite good from start to finish. Aside from the halogenic visuals of the drug-trip the film has a gloomy look to it, the New Orleans setting is shot with a darkness to it, it's not a vibrant Mardi Gras feel, instead we get a lot of greens, browns and other earth tones, but it is crisp and nicely detailed throughout. Audio on the disc comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles, everything is crisp and well-balanced, the score from Jimmy LaVelle (The Album Leaf, The Endless) sounds great.
Extras begin with an informative and fun audio commentary with directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, it's a lively discussion that gets into the genesis of the film, specifics about how certain shots were achieved and where, what it is like shooting a sci-fi indie on a budget. We also get a brief deleted scenes, a humorous alternate ending, a fifteen-minute making-of featurette, an three-minute VFX breakdown, and an interesting eight-minute previsualization featurette that compares the directors unique way of doing previsualizations compared with the finished image as it looked in the film. The single-disc release arrives in a standard keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork, with a slipcover with the same artwork.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Directors and Producer
- Making of (15 min) HD
- Previsualization (8 min) HD
- VFX Breakdown (3 min) HD
- Deleted Scene (1 min) HD
- Alternate Ending (1 min) HD
More screenshots from the Blu-ray:
