Canada · 2020
1h 37m
Director Christopher MacBride
Starring Dylan O'Brien, Hannah Gross, Emory Cohen, Keir Gilchrist
Genre Thriller
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The movie follows a man named Fred, who literally and metaphorically journeys into his past after a chance encounter with a man forgotten from his youth. Fred “slowly begins to unravel a long-hidden mystery about a missing girl, a drug called Mercury, and a terrifying creature that has now followed him into adulthood. As past, present, and future begin to intersect and parallel each other, Fred explores all the possible lives he could lead. Which one will he choose?”
The movie’s pileup of dislocating side-swipes from any tangible here/now is intriguing and well-crafted to a degree many genre fans will find exciting. But others will be justified in wondering if all this stylish, increasingly frenetic sleight-of-hand obscures scant substance.
And it mostly doesn’t quite work, because Fred, as written by MacBride and played by Dylan O’Brien, just isn’t a compelling character.
The Guardian by Leslie Felperin
This pulpy multiverse brain-teaser is reasonably compelling to watch – at least in this reality. In another, it’s straight to video garbage, and in yet another, it’s won the Palme d’Or.
Paste Magazine by Lex Briscuso
Flashback certainly isn’t perfect, and despite the effort it took to fully immerse myself in the narrative in a way that made sense, there is something admirable about the message it wants to put out in the world.