Backwards Faces movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Backwards Faces movie review

This indie film will be available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudo on April 11, 2023.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 8 minutes

IN A NUTSHELL:

Here’s the summary from the studio:

After waking from a meaningless one-night stand, theoretical physicist Sydney (Lennon Sickels) wants to leave but cannot help but stay when her mysterious and aloof one-night partner, Ken (Andrew Morra), claims he is from a different universe. Theoretical physics becomes a lot less theoretical when Ken tells her the solution to all life’s problems exists within the alleged traversable wormhole through space and time in his bathroom. Self-loathing is taken to a new extreme when Sydney and Ken are forced to reckon with the very worst of their other selves from across the multiverse.

THINGS I LIKED:

The cerebral film was written, directed, and produced by Chris Aresco. Congrats to him on his many award nominations. He has done work in both film and TV.
I had never seen either actor in anything before this two-hander. Lennon Sickels and Andrew Morra have great potential. You might recognize Andrew for his performance in Season 9 of FX’s American Horror Story.
It’s difficult to hold an audience’s attention when only two actors are on screen and in the same location during the entire movie. The conversation is captivating enough to do so.
I love it when movies reference other movies. This one refers to my all-time favorite time-loop movie: Groundhog Day!
Some of the banter is very entertaining. It makes you feel like you’ve just engaged in a philosophical boxing match. Theoretical physicists will, surely, get a kick out of the scientific ideas tossed around in the dialogue.
Do real diamonds fog up when you breathe on them? It was talked about so much in the movie that I had to look it up! As it turns out, a real diamond WILL fog but clear up within one or two seconds; whereas, a fake diamond will stay foggy. Hmmm…good to know!
There’s a time stamp that lets us see how much time has passed between segments. That’s an effective element since time is one of the major themes of the film.
Some of the editing choices are amusing…in a good way!
This would make for a fun stage play on college campuses.
The movie’s tone assumes you’re smart and can understand things like quantum mechanics. It never talks down to the audience.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Some of the dialogue is witty. Other times, it’s not as clever as it thinks it is.
Lennon Sickels talks WAY too fast. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand what she says, which is a shame because her lines are so intriguing.
There are some overacted and underacted moments.
Some viewers won’t like the choice the director made to film in black and white. The movie poster leads you to believe the movie will be in color. In fact, using those kinds of colors in the actual movie would have given the movie a very metaverse feeling!
It looks like a low-budget film.
The movie isn’t quite a full, feature film, clocking in at only 68 minutes. Some viewers will be happy about that, while others will wish for more scenarios.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Kids will be extremely bored. This movie isn’t appropriate for kids anyway because of crude conversations and the fact that strangers had a one-night stand.
The movie starts with a young couple who has a one-night stand and talks about how things went under the covers.
Lots of talk of sex.
Profanity, including F-bombs.
There is a large, crude drawing of a male’s private body part.

THEMES:

The multiverse
Being self-aware
Relationships
Choices
Possibilities
Time Loops
Memories
Mistakes
The meaning of life
Self-care and selflessness

FUNNY LINES:

“How is your relationship with reality?” – Sydney (Lennon Sickels) “Tenuous.” – Ken (Andrew Morra)
“In the multiverse, we’re judged by our thoughts.” – – Ken (Andrew Morra)