“What the hell happened?”

Genre: YA Psychic Thrillers
Release Date: 2023
Where I Watched: HBO (Oh. Right. “MAX”.)

Gist: Aurora/Ro is your typical teenager. Cool mom, home-schooled, psychic powers… Not your experience. Same. But maybe that last bit is why her mom wants Ro to keep a low profile. Like, don’t go out. Ever. And you know how teens take to being grounded. So, naturally, Ro heads out, and after a horrible night, wakes to an even worse morning. Looks like mom was right? Huh. Guess that can happen, sometimes. Maybe.

Gotta say: Not to be confused with the 2018 sci-fi film of the same name, thisfilm from Project Greenlight feels like a solid starting point for a cool series. However, things go swiftly meh, with a lack of world building and character development hobbling the intriguing possibilities. Good thing the trio of leads are talented enough to keep my interest, even when I was wishing for more about these interesting characters, and their world.

The biggest issue that hit me over the head repeatedly? This film doesn’t seem to know who’s the main character is for chunks of the film. Ro ends up being the MC, but her mom Alya’s story takes center stage from the opening scene, throwing my tiny brain off track. A few other flashbacks scattered throughout help flesh out Ro and Ayla’s story, but with that opening scene focusing on Ayla? These flashbacks just had me wondering if the story was gonna shift to her. Hey, I watched The Last of Us. I know that kinda thing can happen. But nope. It’s just wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey mess, held together by the performances of (relative) newcomer Mia Isaac as Ro, and Jessica Frances Dukes as Ayla.

Director Meko Winbush has a good eye, and her shot composition and editing has a flow that keeps the storyline from fracturing into too many pieces. However, the screenplay by Philip Gelatt feels unfinished. It’s like in a novel where your editor tells you to flesh out some scenes so they connect better with your audience, but then you just ignore all that. Which is strange, as his work on They Remain and the series Love, Death, & Robots is solid. I would have liked to have had this film delve deeper into the organization Alya left, more with Ro feeling out her powers and control, and heck, even more with the teens she met early in the film.

For example? A particularly sad occurrence early on could have been rewritten with a different character outcome, so Ro could have more than her mom and Big Bad Derek (played with just the right touch of egocentric smarm from Garret Dillahunt) to play off of. But perhaps that group of young’uns would be too much like Stranger Things. So maybe something else? Anything else. The film feels like it’s in search of meaning. And with the first few scenes being so full of promise? That’s a shame.

Lord knows the performers are giving their very best, and I mean that in the most “damn y’all ATE” kinda way. However, while the story and premise are intriguing, the execution feels…sleepy? Downbeat in a dull way? Whatever the word is for when a story should be gripping me, but felt like a road trip through southeastern Colorado. (Love ya, Rocky Ford. But y’all know it’s nothing but farm for miles. Miles. Ish gets “yeah, more whatever” real quick. Please send cantaloupes. Miss you.)

Come for: An interesting premise from a shiny new creator
Stay for: A film that’s less than an hour and a half, and introduces new talent in front and behind the camera that we’ll hopefully see again, in more interesting fare.