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Flashback

Review by Rich Cline | 3/5

Flashback
dir-scr Christopher MacBride
prd Lee Kim
with Dylan O'Brien, Maika Monroe, Hannah Gross, Emory Cohen, Keir Gilchrist, Liisa Repo-Martell, Amanda Brugel, Alan C Peterson, Aaron Poole, Maika Harper, Ian Matthews, Connor Smith
release US/UK 4.Jun.21
20/Canada Lionsgate 1h37

monroe cohen gilchrist


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gross and o'brien
Intricately written and directed by Christopher MacBride, this dramatic horror movie has a complex structure that deliberately scrambles its sense of reality. The hushed opening scenes provide a creeping sense of unhinged mystery for a complex central character whose past and present begin to merge. It may be indulgent and pushy, but MacBride's dreamy ambience operates on so many puzzling levels that it keeps us on our toes.
With his mother (Repo-Martell) terminally ill in hospital, Fred (O'Brien) struggles to concentrate on both his new job working for Evelyn (Brugel) and his relationship with Karen (Gross). Then an encounter with a stranger (Smith) triggers memories of school classmate Cindy (Monroe), who inexplicably disappeared. Obsessed with what happened to her, Fred looks up the class bad boy Sebastian (Cohen) and geeky Andre (Gilchrist), and together they retrace the fateful night the four of them attended a freaky underground party and took the mind-altering drug mercury. Meanwhile, Fred is losing track of what's real.
The film is strikingly shot and edited to depict the swirl of memories in Fred's mind, which are cleverly interconnected with where he is now. The kaleidoscopic effects of mercury add to the movie's hallucinatory vibe, inventively blurring timelines while also adding a preachy undercurrent that hints at MacBride's real intention here. And various thematic angles on the premise (dying mother, missing girl, drug use, lost aspirations) add a range of interpretations to what plays out on screen, which makes Fred's odyssey gripping.

O'Brien delivers one of his meatiest performances yet as a young man who becomes increasingly unclear about the lines between his childhood and young adulthood. It's a superbly understated performance that ripples with emotional depth, even if the character isn't written with much nuance. Still, Fred's fragile mental state reveals some vivid layers in his complex relationship with Karen, a finely gauged turn from Gross. And revisiting events with Cindy, Sebastian and Andre raises fascinating textures between O'Brien and the gifted Monroe, Cohen and Gilchrist.

As the film heads down a rather outrageous rabbit hole, the script tips over into fantasy, hinting at both a much wider supernatural narrative as well as a naggingly simplistic explanation for everything that's happening. But the story holds the interest as it explores the idea that life is full of moments that are fraught with possibilities. So even if the film feels like a storm in a teacup, as it were, MacBride takes the audience into an intimate psychedelic nightmare, deploying inventive imagery to touch on darkly provocative themes.

cert 15 themes, language, violence 28.May.21

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© 2021 by Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
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