Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson are among the riskiest genre filmmakers working today. Like or hate their films, the pair continue to be incredibly hands-on (they still script, edit and co-direct everything they make). Perhaps even more significantly, they remain resolutely unafraid to take big swings by tackling odd, out of the box ideas.

Their latest film Synchronic is a little more box office friendly than their previous efforts, but despite the greater mainstream appeal (and star power), the film clearly confirms that the pair haven’t lost their enthusiasm for the offbeat.

Synchronic stars Marvel actor Anthony Mackie and British hunk Jamie Dornan as EMTs working the overnight shift in New Orleans. Dennis (Dornan) is in a tired monogamous marriage with Tara (Katie Aselton) that is dominated by parenting tensions around their newborn and their charming, but troubled 18 year old daughter Brianna (Ally Ioannides). Steve (Mackie), meanwhile, is a perennially single ladies man. The two men share an easy going friendship that feels lived-in and authentic, which really helps to establish the film early on; Synchronic is primarily concerned with character- and world-building.

The first half of the film follows Dennis and Steve on their nightly rounds as they encounter a series of bizarre accidents and deaths. The film opens with an incident in a flop house where one man has been run through with a sword; later, they encounter a charred corpse at an abandoned amusement park, and later they attend to a couple at a hotel who present with very different injuries – the woman has a nasty snakebite, while the man has fallen spectacularly in the elevator.

Initially all of these events appear unconnected, but even inattentive viewers will spot the empty Synchronic wrappers lurking at each crime scene. The designer drug causes life-like immersive trips, captured by Benson and Moorhead as vividly decomposing sets that slowly melt away to reveal new exteriors underneath. It’s a spectacle that helps to visually capture the fascinating and simultaneously terrifying experience of tripping alongside the drugged-out characters. Naturally Synchronic draws on Hollywood’s familiar fascination with dangerous dreams and simulations, so any injuries sustained while on the drug winds up affecting its users in the “real world”, up to and including death.

The personal and professional collide when Brianna disappears, with the implication being that she was using Synchronic. Her absence immediately undermines the already rocky foundation of Dennis and Tara’s marriage, though this is hardly the film’s focus (truth be told, it is barely given a handful of scenes). Synchronic is actually far more interested in Steve’s role in this drama: via a series of events, he learns that he has an unexpected medical issue involving his pineal gland that uniquely positions him as Brianna’s savior.

At this point, around the halfway mark of the film, Synchronic takes on a new energy. If the opening scenes suggest a gritty drug epidemic drama, the sprightly middle section fully embraces sci-fi conventions as Steve experiments with and learns the rules of using the drug. The use of video diaries, whiteboards and time travel feel reminiscent of Primer with a dash more humor, thanks primarily to Steve’s partner in crime: his dog. These playful, action-oriented scenes add both excitement and levity to the film, while also allowing Mackie an opportunity to really shine.

Benson’s script struggles slightly to reintroduce Dennis and Tara’s domestic drama back into the film in order to set up the last act. This is partially because Dennis is less interesting than Steve, but also because the frustrated family man has been off-screen for so long. A certain amount of narrative contrivance is required to set up Steve’s rescue attempt (naturally there are a limited number of chances and the pair lack the specifics of Brianna’s trip), but these kinds of allowances are relatively easy to forgive – particularly when the directing partners build to a tense and exciting climactic action sequence imbued with emotional stakes.

Although the film occasionally struggles to nail down its tone and seamlessly integrate all of its characters in compelling ways, the take away message about living in the present and making the most of time spent with the special people in your life is admirable. In the hands of lesser artists, Synchronic could have come off as disingenuous or even saccharine in an “after school special” kind of way, but Benson and Moorhead do right by Steve’s emotional journey to save his extended family while grappling with his own mortality. This willingness to explore the intimacy of male friendships is a surprisingly welcome addition to the narrative, something that more conventional testosterone-fueled action films would do well to pay attention to.

Synchronic may be a little more mainstream in its appeal and a little less solid in its narrative development than some of Benson and Moorhead’s previous efforts, but the film is never less than watchable. For fans of the pair, a new film is always a must-see affair; in the case of Synchronic, audiences who didn’t love their previous efforts may find this a more accessible text. Either way, the film proves that the two filmmakers remain in a daring, go for broke league of their own.