SXSW 2024: Things Will Be Different introduces Michael Felker to the Benson & Moorehead stable

Photo by Carissa Dorson

If you’re a fan of indie cult fave filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead, take note: Michael Felker, the pair’s longtime collaborator who edited most of their movies made his feature directing debut at SXSW, and the results are pretty solid. Felker’s Things Will Be Different is a lean, clever sci-fi thriller that fits right in with the Benson and Moorehead vision of high concept/low budget. While the film’s ambition slightly exceeds its reach, Felker’s feature debut is still twisty and curious enough to demand your attention.

Estranged siblings Joseph (Adam David Thompson) and Sidney (Riley Dandy) are on the run from the cops with a sack full of life-changing cash. They need a safe place to lay low. Fortunately, Joseph has a tip from a regular at his bar for the best safe house there is—one that takes you outside of time. The pair hightail it to a remote farmhouse, and after following a series of complex activating instructions, poof: they’ve gone back in time, where they’ll stay for two weeks before going back home with their ill-gotten gains.

Of course, it’s never that simple, and at the end of the prescribed two weeks, the brother and sister discover someone else knows what they’re up to. The home’s mysterious owners, who live at some point in the far future, have closed down the portal and direct the siblings to contact them via a tape recorder. These folks will erase Joseph and Sidney from existence unless they agree to stay longer, and intercept another unwelcome traveler who’s due to arrive there… eventually.

The first act of Things Will Be Different, with its creepy locales and puzzle-like sets of instructions for Joseph and Sidney to follow, exudes indie horror video game vibes in the best way. The property includes not just the farmhouse but a mill and a chapel, both abandoned, which lead to plenty of shots of the two of them exploring dark spaces with flashlights, complete with occasional icky discovery. Felker also finds fun ways of playing with the time-jump; Joseph and Sidney find the fridge and the liquor cabinet restock themselves when they’re empty. In one particularly funny moment, Sidney slams an empty cabinet door in frustration, only to have the door bounce back back and reveal a cabinet full of whiskey.

When the movie moves toward the metaphysical, things start falling apart in Christopher Nolan fashion, where what’s happening doesn’t quite match up to the rules we’ve been given. Felker does thread things toward a kind of confrontation with God—Joseph especially feels a need to redeem himself for past wrongs toward Sidney, and his conversations with the mysterious folks on the other end of the recorder feel more and more like prayer.

It feels like Things Will Be Different arrives at a definitive ending, but then continues past that point, which muddles the impact.

Despite this, Felker’s first movie is still a solid effort, packed with interesting ideas and defined by a plot structure that gives out information gradually, giving the audience a puzzle to solve along with the characters. Even if it doesn’t quite hit a bullseye, there’s enough here to make Things Will Be Different worth championing, and Felker a filmmaker worth watching.