Just like the “Because You Watched…” lane that pops up on your favorite streaming service, Now Playing Podcast wants to help you find the perfect companion flicks. Each week, contributor Chris Bravo brings you fresh recommends that tie in with one of our reviews.
The Flash (2023) is not only full of microwaved babies and nostalgic superheroes from generations past. It also contains answers to questions like, “What would happen if you met yourself while time traveling?” “How much can we really change the course of history?” “What do the butterfly effect and George Clooney have in common?”
You know what other movie tackles these questions? Predestination (2014), starring Ethan Hawke and Sarah Snook and directed by the Spierig Brothers is a funky little sci-fi movie that is all about time travel, universe hopping, and the consequences of it all. If it’s the moral implications and the epic ramifications of altering history in The Flash that really sparked your imagination, then you’ll get a lot to ponder in Predestination. Let’s just say that Michael J. Fox has nothing on Sarah Snook’s character in this one.
In addition to all of the thought-provoking exercises in philosophical time-hopping, this is a cool little period piece, with period-accurate costumes and sets from throughout the 20th century. Some of the effects are a little too coy for their own good–conveniently placed shadows to obscure some characters’ identities–and the plot is nowhere near as epic and grandiose as the universe-bending story in The Flash. But for a small-scale sci-fi movie with good performances and intriguing questions about fate and–yes–predestination, this is a good one.
