First off, let me give an honest up front detail about my review process: This film is really a 7.5 to me, but i rounded up instead of down like i usually do, because i feel this movie is trapped between a rock and a hard place.
This is NOT an action, or adventure film, at all, like most big Sci-fi. Kinda barely even a sci-fi film, I prefer to call it Speculative Fiction, but most of all its a drama, while also not being exactly what that implies. This movie isn't a "Family drama" but it does focus in on familial bonds, its definitely not a comedy, but it stars relatable comic actors who inject a bit of levity into the situations. Its not any of those genres But it has elements of them all. (except, to be clear, action and adventure).
To me this belongs in a genre I really love that I'm calling "Meta-Modern Speculative Fiction", and the easiest comparison is basically ALL the films of Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche NY, Being John Malkovich), but others that I've loved are: Visioneers, Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, Sorry to Bother You, The Lobster, Poor Things, Get Out, Nope and the Tv Shows Legion, The Last Man on Earth, Maniac, I am a Virgo, and Devs. I could list a ton more but im getting away from the point.
All this type of media tends to take a Speculative fiction concept, usually with some surreal mystery/thriller element, and apply those to a character drama, with a philosophical and/or psychosocial tone. They tend to defy genre convention by combining Elements of those genres and others, and an often wildly oscillating emotional undertone, conjuring disparate negative and positive associations along the way.
In this case its mostly a time travel character drama, a little mystery thriller, and a peppering of other momentary vibes. It obviously shares a lot of tropes with Groundhog day but it tackles those in a totally different way that fans of Time Travel narratives will appreciate because it compresses a lot of the classic moments with clever editing techniques that fans of film editing will also love.
Give it a watch if that sounds good, and if you already but you were expecting a different movie, please don't rate it poorly because it didn't match expectation, a lot of people like me want to see movies like this, and when the weirder movies tend to get downvoted due to being misunderstood it just gets tougher to find and support films like this.
