“Executive Produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead” is enticing enough on its own, but Michael Felker’s Things Will Be Different stands tall in the shadow of that promise. Serving as the long-time editor’s feature debut, the influence of films like The Endless and Synchronic is an ever-present specter that doesn’t knock any points off of this enticing and thrilling film.
I almost called it a “little film.” In some ways it is. Things Will Be Different is almost completely a two-hander, keeps to a tight one-hundred-and-two minutes, and contains a massive inner life that is well-contained in only two real locations. It’s performed with a frankly wonderful set of performances from Adam David Thompson (Mozart in the Jungle, The Meyerowitz Stories) and Riley Dandy (Christmas Bloody Christmas, A Hollywood Christmas) as siblings Joseph and Sidney. The estranged characters come together for a score involving time travel, blood, and catching up on more than either of them truly understands. I’m estranged from my own brother and honestly the idea of reconnection is laughable, but I have to admit that the idealism of Things Will Be Different was as moving as the film is fascinating.
The pair leave a bar after executing a robbery and hide out at a remote, rural house that allows them to travel through time. Using it to avoid the police hot on their tail, the two begin to realize that someone else is controlling the house and leaving cryptic messages, leading to mistrust as the two run around like rats in a maze trying to escape their situation. The sibling bond gets put to the test as their captor’s demands grow increasingly deranged and deadly, leaving Joseph and Sidney to fight their way out of their time-travel situation.
The film pulls heavily from ideas seen in Benson and Moorehead’s 2012 film Resolution, weaving the time-travel aspects into a one-location two-hander, but because of the unique familial relationship it’s able to separate from its producer’s and serve as an excellent debut. Initially envisioned as a film inspired by Felker’s grandmother, entitled Timeshare, it was reworked from the skeletons of other scripts and rebirthed as Things Will Be Different. Based on his own experience with his sister, Felker worked his way through a myriad of personal issues in the writing of the film. It started as a story about the grandmother he lost during the pandemic and developed into something that allowed him to work through reconnection with family. Under the surface of the film is something so deeply personal that it adds a simmering tension, making the fear and violence more palpable.
There is zero surprise that this movie is masterfully edited. Sure, it’s shot by the editor of some of the tightest films in recent memory, but Felker also tagged in Rebeca Marques. The Brazilian-born editor has worked on Jordan Peele’s Nope, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, and a myriad of other projects. Her work here, combined with Felker’s eye for timing and Director of Photography Carissa Dorson, has turned out a gorgeous-looking film that begs to be seen in a theatre. If you have a chance to catch this during its run I urge you to do so.
Things Will Be Different is an exciting, tense, and fun debut feature from a filmmaker to keep an eye on. It reminds me quite a bit of Ishana Night Shyamalan’s The Watchers in a way. It’s got the fingerprints of its executive producers but allows me to grow excited about where the director goes from here. This is a massively different film, of course, but it’s one that I think will be looked back on as an exciting moment where a new director stepped out and began to build something new. Loved this quite a bit and cannot wait to see where Michael Felker goes from here.
Things Will Be Different is on a limited theatrical run and is also available to rent/buy in all the usual places.
WRITE DRUNK; EDIT DRUNK 