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Synchronic

Who knew opiods could be so complex? Try this demanding thriller/sci-fi.

Synchronic

Paramedics are perfect as subjects for thrillers and sci-fi. Synchronic is the mixture of both set in, where else? New Orleans. As paramedics Steve (Anthony Mackie) and best friend Dennis (Jamie Dornan) try to figure out the reason for the spate of recent grisly murders, Steve discovers a hallucinogenic drug responsible for them, Synchronic, and the effects are, well, not of this world.

That’s the sci-fi: time travel to places such as Ice-Age tundra via the pill but only as many trips as the supply of drugs. The parallel to the devastation of opioids today is easier than figuring out the flight plan of each. Staying in the same spot is crucial for the bus to stop, so to speak. Being historically savvy is also helpful, especially when one meets former slave owners, who think they own you (Mackie is Black in case you didn’t know).

More important than the logistics, however, is the underlying theme of being rooted in present time to family and friends. Steve’s selfless time return to find his best bud’s daughter, Brianna (Ally Ioannides), is the linchpin of love that compels good guys like Steve maybe to survive the dangerous journeys.

Synchronic is within the thriller (who’s killing these folks?) and sci-fi formulas, satisfactorily heating the tropic beats and emphasizing the humanity behind these shenanigans. If for nothing else, the film reveals just what it means to be alive (yep, existential). It’s a pleasant, albeit challenging, Netflix evening.

Synchronic

Directors: Justin Benson (The Endless), Aaron Moorhead (The Endless)

Screenplay: Benson

Cast: Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker), Jamie Dornan (A Private War)

Run Time: 1 h 42

Rating: R

John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JohnDeSando62@gmail.com

John DeSando holds a BA from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in English from The University of Arizona. He served several universities as a professor, dean, and academic vice president. He has been producing and broadcasting as a film critic on It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics for more than two decades. DeSando received the Los Angeles Press Club's first-place honors for national entertainment journalism.