Synchronic

This is a review of a truly terrible movie I watched because I loved not one, not two, but THREE movies by the same creators. I did not review the ones I loved. I will hopefully do so later. I am a bad person. SORRY Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead!

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead wrote and directed three fantastic movies, all of which are best enjoyed knowing as little as possible in advance.

The Endless is a horror/suspense/multigenre movie about two brothers who fled a UFO cult, then return for a visit as adults. The horror is of the creeping tension/appalling realizations variety; there's minimal/brief violence/gore. It's unpredictable and excellent.

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Resolution is related to The Endless. I watched it second and was very surprised to learn that it had been made first. It's about two friends in a cabin, one trying to help the other kick a nasty drug habit, and plays mostly like a naturalistic buddy comedy-drama with elements of horror/suspense. Again, extremely minimal/brief violence/gore. It's also brilliant.

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Spring is not related to the other two and is almost impossible to categorize. Half the fun is figuring out what genre it even is. IMO the best experience is to go in knowing absolutely nothing about it, except that it's about a young American man grieving the death of his mother, who goes to Italy and meets a young woman. I loved it and found it very touching. It has some violence and IIRC a cat dies.

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OKAY now let's talk about Synchronic, their shockingly terrible and accidentally hilarious movie. All I knew going in was that it was by Benson & Moorhead, was about time travel, and starred Anthony Mackie - good signs, right?

I watched it with scioscribe and will include some of our comments.

It opens with a man and woman in bed. There are weird noises! The room dissolves! There is a desert! The man is flying! A snake rears up between the woman's legs! She is in a swamp and a person wearing weird mask like a gas mask is gesticulating at her! Stock footage of the Milky Way! A person merges with the wall! I probably forgot some things!

Cut to paramedic Anthony Mackie and his partner, Jamie Dornan, who walk into a weird scene with heroin addicts, a dead guy stabbed with a sword, and an empty packet of a designer drug, Synchronic.

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Roll credits!

Written and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

Rachel & scioscribe , simultaneous: HOW

I honestly don't understand how this movie happened. They made it the same year they made The Endless, which was fantastic. You can see some similar themes as in some of their other movie, but every element of this movie was bad.

Maybe they really needed to use up some stock footage of the Milky Way.

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