Anthony Mackie is almost single-handedly inventing the Black Savior genre. You know, it’s like the White Savior effect, only with film negatives. It makes me wonder if Mr. Mackie has ever considered exactly what he’s saving. No matter, I suppose. Sick of the “White Savior” thing? Watch Anthony Mackie on screen; something else is going to happen.
Speaking of tropes that need to perish, the hazards of time travel are –once again- explored in Synchronic, a film that makes you wonder if everyone of the past was an asshole. The film also made me wonder whether it was pro-drug or anti-drug. I think the idea of most drugs is that you stay put, but you feel like you’ve gone somewhere else. In Synchronic, you feel the same, but literally go back in time. I would say it’s hard to market a drug like that except you can probably get the FDA to approve it before you’ve even started inventing it.
Steve (Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are paramedics in modern-day New Orleans who start encountering weird things – a snake bite from an extinct species, a man run through by a conquistador blade, a Trump voter with a firm grasp of reality. (I just made up that last part; those other two could actually happen.) Steve notes that the designer drug “Synchronic” was present at each scene of weird. Aha! A “clue.”
Turns out the drugs send you literally back in time, however, it’s back in time in New Orleans, which among epochs of swampland, ice ages, and slavery, just isn’t all that much fun. They didn’t exactly throw beads and yell “show us your boobs!” during either the Civil War or the War of 1812, knowwhatI’msayin’? So while no one actually had any fun exploring when The Big Easy wasn’t very easy at all, people still kept taking the drugs, which leads to
the plot point of the dreadful disappearance of Dennis’ daughter.
Apparently, nobody in the past was ever mundane. Every dude you encounter wants to run you through with a sword, a knife, or a really sharp stick. Is this what being in the 21st Century is like? Well, lessee, WE actually have to know your vote for President before we decide to stick you with something pointy? Yay, us. Look at how enlightened we are.
Even for Anthony Mackie, this performance is a little much. Breaking past his temptation to scowl at least once during every scene, Mackie made sure to look disgruntled each and every time the every time the camera was pointed in his direction. I suppose it made sense; there’s not much in this character’s life to be overjoyed about, but still. I suppose it’s surprising I enjoyed the film –more-or-less- all the same. I’m clearly a sucker for time manipulation even when presented as a side effect of drug abuse. But I’m not going to say that aloud more than once.
Stumbling upon the sordid and sleazy
Steve finds portals not altogether easy
Between time travel malaise
And a hostility craze
Old New Orleans could be dubbed “The Big Queasy”
Rated R, 102 Minutes
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Writer: Justin Benson
Genre: Our screwed future/past?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Anthony Mackie fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: New Orleans historians
