SXSW Film Festival 2024: THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT

For fans of time-bending sci-fi, Things Will Be Different, editor Michael Felker‘s directorial debut, may well invite repeat viewing. This thriller is confidently executed enough to swing for the fences with metaphysical lore that’s either complex enough to unpack with friends–– or just a little confusing. Either way, the team behind it is obviously enthusiastic, and that makes this film a pretty good time. 

Safe House

After a robbery, brother and sister Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy) go on the lam. Armed with a notebook full of instructions, they scramble to a large farmhouse, cops in tow. With only moments to spare, they open a secret door into, as Rod Serling would say, another dimension. They haven’t quite traveled back in time, nor are they in the future; after their planned two weeks of hiding are up, they discover that this Twilight Zone episode isn’t going the way they’d planned. Trapped in between times, they can either figure out who’s put them here and why, or be stuck in limbo forever. 

Some of the film’s first half itself feels a little like limbo, as the siblings discuss tangled childhoods that never feel quite clearly drawn enough to be compelling: Their parents were divorced and kept the kids apart perhaps, à la The Parent Trap? Both seem to have died in the past, though it’s genuinely unclear when or how or in what order, and that feels important here. Nevertheless, both actors’ charisma and crisp editing keeps the movie running along smoothly, and the time travel mechanics have enough National Treasure/Tomb Raider pizzazz (secret clock locks, inter-dimensional radio!) to sustain interest. 

Out of Time

As the non-months begin to pass, questions about this place and its origins arise whose investigation would make for a fascinating film in their own right. The film’s greatest flaw is likely sticking the landing between the first half and the pair’s attempts to escape a potentially eternal stay in temporal purgatory. Joseph drinks, Sid does research, they fight. One gets the feeling of having missed something when the film jumps to this new normal in-media-res after a time cut, and not in a pleasantly mysterious way. The real pleasure of time-benders like this one for many sci-fi aficionados is delving into the mechanics of scenarios like this, and Things Will Be Different unfortunately doesn’t spare much time on that kind of thing, allowing Sid to do that part off-screen. 

However, what details are offered are consistently tantalizing and well-drawn. As things get worse for the siblings, a mysterious, well-armed stranger begins to stalk the house. Who are they and where did they come from? Who is the voice communicating with the siblings? Enticingly, the answers raise more questions than they resolve. The film’s final act is where things really get interesting, broadening the scope of the characters’ predicament to the cosmic proportions befitting this kind of premise and ramping up the fun in the process. It’s tempting to start the film over again to see how new information will reframe the experience.  

Conclusion:

Ultimately, this movie clearly wants viewers to have a good time. In addition to competent, charming performances from the two leads, the film is stylishly rendered. Smooth cinematography and nicely atemporal mise-en-scène and time-MacGuffins elevate it significantly. Fans of the genre should find lots to enjoy in this farmhouse puzzlebox.