Reviews
‘Things Will Be Different’ SXSW Review – Family Bonds Get Tested in Engaging Sci-Fi Thriller
Writer/Director/Editor Michael Felker knows his way around time-shifting, metaphysical labors of love, having edited Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s Something in the Dirt, Synchronic, The Endless, and Spring. Felker’s feature directorial debut, Things Will Be Different, seamlessly fits into the Benson/Moorhead cinematic universe, introducing a fractured sibling relationship put through the physical and emotional wringer when they play with forces they don’t quite understand.
Estranged siblings Sidney (Riley Dandy, Christmas Bloody Christmas) and Joseph (Adam David Thompson, Vampires vs. The Bronx) fall into old habits like no time has passed at all when they rendezvous at a diner. That’s largely due to Joseph having a large bag of cash grabbed from an armed robbery, and the authorities are rapidly closing in. The siblings quickly make their way to an abandoned farmhouse with instructions on how to escape their current reality. The plan is to wait out the cops from the safety of an alternate timeline, but their plan to escape the law will bend more than just time.
For a lengthy stretch, Felker explores the siblings’ relationship and history as Sidney and Joseph settle into a routine to pass the time while they wait for things to cool off. Dandy and Thompson’s easy banter and chemistry make quick work of building out the siblings’ interiority and lived-in bonds. That they have a tight-knit formation when it comes to dealing with potential threats only further sells Sidney and Joseph’s bond and unshakable. Only when new phenomena and developments arise do the fractures begin to show.
Felker takes a measured approach to doling out exposition, both for the siblings’ history and the phenomenon behind the farm’s vacuum in time and space. It puts thoughtful precedence on exploring the profound love and lingering remorse between brother and sister, then lets the supernatural aspects slowly decimate their carefully curated defenses. The slow simmer eventually reaches a roaring boil as Felker plunges his leads into a mind-bending fight to escape their self-made reality. The meditative familial drama gives way to a sci-fi thriller, and Felker once again demonstrates a knack for knowing how much to reveal and when. There’s a simplicity to the worldbuilding here that works because Felker never overshows his hand.
Complete with a cameo by Justin Benson, who produces alongside Aaron Moorhead, Things Will Be Different looks and feels like a Rustic Films feature in the way that it explores the human experience and relationships against a genre backdrop. Cinematographer Carissa Dorson captures the stunning details and natural beauty of the rural farmland, an atypically expansive yet isolated setting for the claustrophobic time prison Sidney and Joseph find themselves trapped in.
Its narrative structure may not be nearly as intricate as The Endless or even Resolution, regarding its use of time and space, but Felker layers in enough bursts of horror and sci-fi to retain audience investment in his characters’ unique plight. More importantly, the filmmaker’s careful framing of Sidney and Joseph’s story builds to a wholly satisfying conclusion, the precise type of outcome that brings the film’s themes full circle with great impact.
Things Will Be Different is an accomplished, affecting feature directorial debut that smartly uses its time concept to give a pair of morally skewed siblings a chance to rewrite the past for the sake of a better future. It’s in the space in between where Felker effectively tests familial bonds to their limit through genre conventions.
Things Will Be Different made its World Premiere at SXSW. Release info TBD.
You know that when prolific director Doug Campbell is involved in a thriller, it’s going to be a ridiculously good time. So although The Manny, written by screenwriters Tamar Halpern and Scotty Mullen, isn’t on the same level as this year’s She’s Obsessed with My Husband, it’s still got plenty to recommend.
Lani McCall (Joanne Jansen) is a food vlogger on the rise. She’s on the cusp of signing a major network contract, thanks to love interest Zack (Brendan Morgan), but her recent divorce from unreliable husband Darren (Jamaal Grant) has left her in a precarious child care situation.
Lani tends to rely on assistant/producer Mercedes (Hailey Summer), but it’s not a sustainable situation. What she really needs is a nanny for her son, Jaylen (Ashton Ayres); ideally as soon as possible.
Enter Morgan (Michael Evans Behling), a hunky 23 year old who cooks, cleans, and dotes on Lani. He’s too good to be true, which – in Lifetime films – is code for “he’s a completely homicidal wacko.”
The joy of these thrillers isn’t piecing together who the villain is; that’s usually obvious from the opening scene (that applies here: The Manny opens with Morgan putting away notepads on his previous “families” and starting a fresh one with a picture of Lani and Jaylen on the cover).
Instead the fun comes from watching the ridiculous gaslighting the villains do before they get their inevitable comeuppance. And, in the case of The Manny, Halpern and Mullen understand that silly is often better than serious.
Which is why when Morgan begins disposing of Lani’s closest friends and confidants to secure his position in the household and her heart, his technique is hilariously unusual. For example, Lani’s sex-positive neighbor Shannon (Jenny Itwaru) is first painted as a gossip before Morgan poisons her smoothie with (get this) expired prosciutto in order to give her a stomach bug.
Morgan’s psychotic behavior quickly escalates to include identity theft, catfishing, and eventually murder, albeit even the latter action is sublimely silly. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever seen asphyxiation by Murphy bed in a thriller before, but I hope to again!
Considering Morgan ingratiates himself into Lani’s life partially via cooking, it’s amusing how many of his violent acts involve kitchen items. Mercedes is removed temporarily from the equation when she breaks a leg falling down cooking oil-greased stairs and, in the kitchen-set climax, Morgan even threatens to tip a pot of boiling water on top of Jaylen’s head.
In different hands, this could be genuinely scary, but Campbell’s directorial approach tends to lean into camp territory. Halpern and Mullen’s screenplay adopts a similar approach, peppering Zack’s dialogue with affirmations of the Manny’s model good looks, including the observation that his “lips are distracting.” Even serious moments, such as when Morgan alleviates Lani’s stress by rubbing peppermint oil on her neck, is accompanied by the double entendre “Yeah, you are pretty tight.”
Evans Behling is having a great time as the perpetrator, striking the right balance between unhinged and doe-eyed innocent. Not unlike The Stepfather films, Morgan is basically a family annihilator in search of the perfect pair, though the traumatic origin of his obsession feels slightly at odds tonally with the goofiness of the rest of the plot.
As the gaslit protagonist, Jansen is saddled with the least interesting role, though Lani’s struggle to balance her career while dating and single parenting is relatable content. Secondary characters are enjoyable enough, particularly when they are given opportunities to be suspicious of Morgan.
At its core, The Manny is a silly and entertaining entry in Lifetime’s catalogue of thrillers. Any film that ends with a battle in the woods and features a ski pole as a weapon is alright by me.
The Manny premieres on Lifetime Thursday, May 9.
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