Nov 19, 20202 min read

Sync short film review

★★

Starring: #NeilBerrett, #AncaVaida, #AlbyJay, #JoakimFink

Still from 'Sync' featuring two characters facing one another wearing hazmat suits and gas masks

Toxic air, soldiers and doctors in hazmat suits, old government secrets and mysterious artefacts, Sync from director Alex Dorrington bears familiar hallmarks to the post-apocalypse dramas but it all feels rather stale. Lacking urgency and failing to create captivating characters and drama, Sync isn’t much except actors wandering around rooms uttering exposition for this underdeveloped setting. Following a trio of soldiers investigating “black sites” in this seemingly dangerous environment, the character’s need for information and understanding what has made the world this way isn’t made equal for the audience. The main character of Dr Maven seems to be a critical figure in the origins of this crisis, she doesn’t seek redemption or vindication however just survival but Dorrington’s direction keeps the stakes to a minimum.

The filmmaking from Dorrington and the team isn’t necessarily bad just absent of passion, the audience just meanders through the film with nothing to take away thematically. The audience is given very little to become invested in, leaving you apathetic to every new development. Leo Violet’s concept art featured in the end credits is the only real hook to garner interest for the brief moment it's featured. The imagery and colours combined with the context of the film’s peculiar ending offer the film a more interesting direction. Rather than the bland gritty sci-fi setting with no personality the last moments of Sync broaden out to more Lovecraftian themes and even though this is what Dorrington is building towards it falls flat. More of a curious head scratch than a satisfying ending, the script needed much stronger foundations to deliver these grander ideas to the audience.

Sync is frustrating in that its vagueness doesn’t create tension or mystery, Dorrington doesn’t build curiosity to make the audience care about the progression of the plot. The script revolves around these questions about the toxic air, Dr Maven’s motivations and this mysterious tech but Sync can’t provide clear or gratifying answers. The stoic direction and atmosphere the film portrays just can’t create anything noteworthy or exciting about the film leaving Sync forgettable and inconsequential. Competently made but narratively and creatively inadequate, Sync and Dorrington don’t seem to be sure of what exactly it wanted to be.