Things Will be Different – SXSW Review

A tight sci-fi script, shot with rigour, and supported by two great performances, establishes Michael Felker as a writer-director to watch.

★★★★

Things Will Be Different is a tightly written mystery thriller with a sci-fi twist, that dives deep into the paradoxes of time travel and the difficulties of family dynamics. The writing-and-directing feature debut of Michael Felker, the film stars Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy as Joseph and Sidney, siblings who are on the run from the law following a successful heist. Their story takes an absurd and unsettling turn when they take refuge in a mysterious farmhouse that, thanks to a handwritten instruction manual they had previously secured, they can use to transport themselves through time. This is their masterplan – hide out in a different time zone where no-one is looking for them, and then return to the present once several days have gone by.

However, once in the future (or is it a parallel time stream? Or the past?) the siblings find themselves trapped on the strange plot of farmland by a mysterious force, with the house no longer under their control. It is here they are given a cryptic ultimatum with which they must comply to have any hope of finding their way out. But who is playing whom?

Felker has past form with high-concept spacetime-bending psychological horror, having served as editor on The Endless (2017) and indeed every Benson and Morehead movie since Spring (2014). Felker notes that this, his debut feature script, was inspired by his own family relationships and a desire to create a film that would resonate with his sci-fi-loving father.

This focus on the emotional complexities of family relationships adds depth to the characters’ journey, making it not just a story about time travel, but also about reconnection and understanding. This emotional grounding, combined with the intriguing premise of being trapped in a space-time anomaly with high stakes, sets Things Will Be Different apart in the sci-fi thriller genre.

Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy are excellent as the siblings, Joe and Sid, giving the characters a close yet vaguely fractured relationship that really sells their shared past. As they are the film’s focus for almost the entire runtime, Things WIll Be Different could have stood or fallen on their chemistry, but they deliver a believable and nuanced portrayal of a complex sibling dynamic conveying both a deep familial bond and underlying tension – vital to ground the film’s more esoteric aspects.

Things Will Be Different is a thought-provoking exploration of the choices we make as members of a family, and of the way their consequences can echo across time. If you like the spacetime playfulness of Benson & Moorhead’s best work, Michael Felker’s sci-fi heist mystery Things Will Be Different is a must-watch.

By turns a little bit The Endless, The House On The Borderlands, House Of Leaves & Timecrimes, this is smart, dark, and from the heart. Highly recommended.

Things Will Be Different played at SXSW, and will also play at the Overlook Film Festival in April.