See You Yesterday
Producer: Spike Lee
Director: Stefon Bristol
Writers: Fredrica Bailey (co-writer), Stefon Bristol (co-writer)
Stars: Eden Duncan-Smith, Dante Crichlow, Astro
OK, fair warning: See You Yesterday is just terrible at being a science fiction movie. It’s a time travel yarn, and on the surface, a very formulaic one: Two high school geniuses invent a time travel machine, but it’s got some limitations: it can only send you up to a week into the past, and then only for ten minutes. Something bad happens, and the kids somewhat slowly realize that “Hey! I’ve got a time machine! I can go into the past, and I can make the bad thing go away!” Of course, they screw it up fifteen ways from Friday on the first go around, and the rest of the flick involves taking the mushroom cloud of misadventures and putting them back in the time bottle. Really, all that was missing was a wild-eyed and wild-haired Peter Capaldi.
Much as I hate technobabble (“Have you tried inverting the plasma flow polarity on the subspace phaser array, Captain?” “Shut the fuck up, Scotty, I’m working.”) the scientifical ‘explanations’ for how the time machine worked was so excruciatingly bad I was looking to see if the silhouettes of Jonah and the ‘Bots were at the bottom of the screen.
But if something is really garbage, I don’t review it. Why waste your time reading about something I think is shit? All that tells you is that it’s either a bad movie, or I’m a bad reviewer, and whichever you decide, you end up wasting your time here.
So here I am, reviewing See You Yesterday. Obviously, I don’t think this is a bad movie. (OK, I might still be a bad reviewer. Caveat emptor, and you aren’t even paying.)
The presence of Spike Lee and his protege, Stefon Bristol, should tell you right off the bat that there’s more going on here than a simple-minded time-travel yarn. Without getting preachy or annoying, they seamlessly work several major social structure problems into the movie, addressing racism, bullying, and even disabilities. (Early in the movie, the kid’s science teacher puts in a five minute appearance, a role played by Michael J. Fox. Anyone who knows Fox’s story knows what an utter miracle of determination and courage it took for his character to look relaxed and unforced, encouraging the kids with warm humour.)
The characters are well-written and engaging. CJ (Eden Duncan-Smith) is a brilliant but angry high school junior, eager to pick fights but also filled with strong resolve. Her nebbish lab partner Sebastion (Dante Crichlow) is her ground, and the engineer of the pair who takes her worse-than-technobabbly scientifical ideas and converts them into backpacks with circuit boards and flashing lights. The two actors make thoroughly convincing high school nerds. The non-scientific dialog is human and flows naturally, and the acting is solid. There is a good supporting cast.
The ending is both original and heart-wrenching. There are several more pedestrian endings that might have presented themselves and the movie would still be worth watching, but this moves it into the ‘above average’ category and makes it unforgettable.
Now on Netflix.