‘Things Will Be Different’ Review — Time Travel Movie Will Keep You Guessing

The Big Picture

• Things Will Be Different
  is a dark and complex time travel film that reveals more as the story unfolds.
• The movie follows siblings Joseph and Sidney as they navigate time shifts with disturbing messages and trapped in a sinister loop.
• The film’s captivating performances by Dandy and Thompson and careful editing by Felker enhance the suspense and mystery.

For whatever reason, the best time travel films of the 21st century have had quite a few things in common: they’re often stories that need to be seen multiple times to truly grasp, they’re relatively bleak, and they play with the limitations and implications of being granted such power. Movies like Back to the Future or TheTerminator made time travel seem relatively straightforward, but after 2001’s Donnie Darko, the 2000s became inundated with complex films like 2004’s Primer, the films of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and, hell, pretty much the entire filmography of Christopher Nolan.

Executive produced by Benson and Moorhead and written and directed by their frequent editor Michael Felker, Things Will Be Different is a solid installment in this generation of time travel films, a dark, twisting tale that offers no easy answers and only comes into clearer view once the credits roll. Things Will Be Different is time travel on a small scale, but its limitations are a strength in this surprising story.

What Is ‘Things Will Be Different’ About?

Things Will Be Different introduces us to brother and sister Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy), right after they commit a robbery. With bags full of cash in hand, they meet back up at a diner, then hit the road once they hear sirens. Joseph knows someplace they can hide out for a while—a house a regular at the bar he owns has lent him—and the secluded home seems like a perfect getaway. But as soon as they hear sirens closing in on them again, Joseph brings out a mysterious book, starts shifting the hands on nearby clocks, jiggling a closet’s doorknob with specificity, and both he and his sister jump in to find themselves in a completely different time, but within the same house.

At first, this seems even better. No matter how hard the police look, they’re not going to find them in a completely different time. But after two weeks, as they try to leave, Joseph and Sidney come to find out they are trapped in this time, with their door back home blocked, and mysterious messages implying sinister things are afoot. An attempt to run away leaves Sidney vomiting blood, and it seems as though all they can do is follow the orders left behind on a time-bending voice recorder left in a safe. Joseph and Sidney are trapped, left with only questions to be answered and the fear of what they don’t know.

Without even knowing Felker’s history with the duo, the influence of Benson and Moorhead’s films can be felt in Things Will Be Different, as the pair are known for their mind and time-bending mysteries on a low budget. But Felker pares down the time travel story, keeping this film simple, giving us only the barest of hints as to what’s happening, and allowing us to simply enjoy the ride of where he’s taking us. The tone of the voice on the other end of the mysterious recorder is really the only key that Joseph and Sidney have about their situation, as they bide their time for some semblance of understanding.

Michael Felker Creates an Exciting New Time Travel Story with ‘Things Will Be Different’

Despite the answers coming slowly, Felker’s script is still captivating, as there’s a foreboding tone underneath every step of this scenario. Felker hides the truth from his audience as well, putting us in the shoes of Joseph and Sidney. At one point, Sidney reveals that she’s been spending much of her time trying to figure out what the hell is going on at this house, which has led her down all sorts of paths that have gone nowhere. Yet to hear the possibilities that probably aren’t happening—theories that include everything from their dead parents doing this to them or Joseph’s theory of “coincidental torture porn”—we also get mixed up in this mystery that for us and them lacks sufficient clues to come up with a satisfactory conclusion.

What makes this all work though is the equally perplexed performances by Dandy and Thompson. We only get small glimpses of their past—they both had a difficult childhood, Joseph runs a bar, Sidney left her six-year-old back home—but these roles are played with such a depth of history between the two. We sort of are told everything we need to know about these two in their first interaction with the aforementioned recorder. Joseph seems accepting of their fate, whereas Sidney wants to cut to the chase, finding out what the people on the other end want from them. As we watch these two, Joseph is defeated by the mess they’re in, while Sidney keeps pressing forward, dedicated to get to the bottom of things. Things Will Be Different lives or dies by this dynamic of estranged brother and sister coming together, and like the mystery at hand, we crave more details about their past and what led them to this unusual house. Dandy and Thompson play these characters with just the right amount of ambiguity and uncertainty, so they become just as compelling as the questions we have about this situation.

And for a movie that was clearly shot on a budget, Felker knows how to make the most of what he has. Naturally, Felker knows the importance of editing (in addition to writing and directing, Felker also edits his own film, along with Rebeca Marques), and utilizes the tension that cutting at just the right moment can provide. When the pressure is building, the edits are quick and exciting, as the score by Jimmy LaValle (aka The Album Leaf) increases the fear and anticipation. In some of the film’s most harrowing scenes, Felker places the camera far away, so we can only see these pivotal moments from a distance, which somehow makes them even more intense. For example, when Sidney attempts to run away, Felker films this moment so that she’s an almost insignificant figure moving at high-speed, until she falls over in pain—to which Felker cuts back and forth to an extreme close-up, again, showcasing just how the right editing can make these moments feel grand.

Things Will Be Different is a strong feature debut from Felker that certainly won’t be for everyone. Its version of time travel leaves much to the audience’s imagination, and almost requires a second viewing to truly comprehend everything Felker is playing at. And very much in the Benson and Moorhead way of storytelling, the more something is explained, the more convoluted this actually makes things. While there’s still plenty to figure out, one reveal near the end presents a strange new wrinkle in time, and what is going on probably makes things more confusing overall than actually solving the questions at hand. But this is a promising entry in the time travel canon from Felker, and his use of excellent editing, stunning cinematography by CarissaDorson, and the two lead performances by Thompson and Dandy, makes this a film you’ll want to rewatch as soon as it ends.

Things Will Be Different premiered at the 2024 SXSW Festival.