The movie is
your typical, predictable time travel story meets Black Lives Matter. We even
get a cameo from Michael J. Fox, who delivers his iconic line, “Great Scott!” To
me, that is all the movie has to offer, everything before and after that was a
complete waste of my time.
Think about any
time travel movie you’ve seen. Now, try to remember the one problem they all
have in common: when you try to change something in the past to create a better
future, it always comes with baggage.
You can tell
this is a low-budget Black film experimenting with the science fiction genre. I
liked how the director and co-writer, Stefon Bristol, kept me invested in
seeing how the movie would end. That said, I wasn’t a fan of the ending, where
the lead character gets lost in her desire for a perfect outcome.
The film is packed with science jargon, some of which feels muddled but makes sense within the world created for this story. Add to that some science-y gadgets with 80s-style special effects, and acting that could’ve used a bit more polish, and you’ve got See You Yesterday.
The plot follows
a teenager named C.J. and her best friend, Sebastian. Both are obsessed with
time travel and have been working on making it happen for what feels like
years. By taking things from their school lab and building other components at
home, they manage to create a backpack-like device that allows them to time
travel.
They decide to
test it out and quickly learn the consequences of interfering with past events.
You’d think this lesson would deter them from trying again, but when C.J. loses
someone to a police shooting—a Black person killed without probable cause—she becomes
hellbent on saving that person’s life. The challenge is, every time she tries,
she gets a new outcome that doesn’t give her the present she wants.
The movie has
its share of plot holes, especially with the time travel mechanics, many of
which are similar to issues we’ve seen in other films tackling the same
concept. Still, if you’ve got the time, you can catch this movie on Netflix.
You’ll appreciate the look and the ideas the film is trying to convey.
And, of course,
it reinforces the lesson we’ve all learned from time travel stories: messing
with time never gets things right without some serious repercussions.
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