Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Christopher MacBride, Icon Film Distribution.
The tagline says, ‘a lost memory trapped in the past will shape the future’. This is a window into the world of a man on the precipice of adulthood.
The film’s protagonist Fredrick Fitzell (Dylan O’Brien, Maze Runner trilogy, American Assassin, Deepwater Horizon) starts having horrific visions of a girl who vanished in high school. He reaches out to old friends, but soon realises the only solution lies deep within his own memories.
With a new corporate job, a long-time girlfriend pressuring him to define their future, and an ailing mother, Fred’s chance encounter with a man from his youth results in terrifying flashbacks that send him on a wild journey into his past. He slowly begins to unravel a long-hidden mystery about a missing girl, a drug called Mercury and a terrifying creature that has been with him every step of the way.
As his past, present and future begin to intersect, Fred begins to question his entire reality and explore all of the possible lives he could lead. The question is: does free will exist?
Written and directed by Christopher MacBride, Flashback has a narrative that theorises “what might have been” actually is, or maybe was, in an alternate timeline, and how we understand time can throw us into catastrophe.
MacBride is in control of the storytelling, attracting attention but not always our complete connection.
The psychological thriller also stars Hannah Gross (The Sinner, The Mountain), Maka Monroe (Greta, Hot Summer Nights), Emory Cohen (Brooklyn, The OA) and Keir Gilchrist (It Follows, Atypical).
Flashback releases on DVD and Digital on October 20.
