Writer-director Michael Felker’s debut feature Things Will Be Different requires viewers to get on its otherworldly, endlessly puzzling wavelength. Those easily frustrated by deliberately opaque narratives should probably steer clear. However, fans of head-scratching time-travel tales in the likes of Primer will find plenty to chew on in this heady, pacey little mind-f**k of a film. The budget may be modest, but ambitions are soaring high.
Siblings Sidney (Riley Dandy) and Joseph (Adam David Thompson) are on the run after a robbery. They find themselves in a messy, empty farmhouse. It’s all part of the plan. After some switcheroo with several grandfather clocks, Sid and Jo are transported to a different… time? Dimension? This remains unclear. But they do have two weeks to mend their estranged relationship. By day 14, instead of successfully escaping, they are trapped in an endless loop of sorts, with a mysterious entity controlling their fate.
“…Sid and Jo are transported to a different… time? Dimension? This remains unclear.”
Numerous inventive moments are peppered throughout the narrative. A voice recorder functions as a sort of telephone through time. (Sidney: “Be direct. Do you want a cut or not?” Creepy voice: “No. We want to wipe you.”) An extended panning shot that seems to transcend time itself showcases cinematographer Carissa Dorson’s stunning work. A shootout in a smothering fog marks another highlight.
Talk about on-screen chemistry. From the get-go, the brother-sister dynamic is fresh, snappy, and utterly believable. Thompson and Dandy inhabit their roles, lively and terrified and full of unspoken resentment. Felker’s rapid-fire dialogue impresses while never veering into “overwritten”. That said, there are two ways to describe the plot: One that doesn’t over-explain itself, trusting the viewers’ intelligence to figure things out as they progress, or one that wildly overreaches, providing little-to-no thread to grasp.
The one thing that can be definitively stated is that there’s no talking down to the audience. The filmmaker, doing a lot with an extremely limited cast and location, has a concrete vision and sticks with it, and whether you get it or not is up to you. A character in the film, when confronted, states: “Big question. Too long to answer.” That pretty much summarizes this cinematic endeavor.