Overview
“Flashback” or rather “The Education of Fredrick Fitzell” is a psychological thriller movie released in 2020 by Christopher MacBride. MacBride took the position of a writer and a director for the movie. The movie has a combination of science fiction, drama, and mystery and it explores the themes of memory, perception, and consequences. The starring character is “Dylan O’Brien” and the movie is set in a gloomy and urban city. This psychological thriller has a very interesting plot twist “what if every decision you make has an infinite alternate timelines”.
Plot Summary
Like many other people, Fredrick Fitzell is a young adult who lives in an ordinary world. Having a job in a corporate world is considered supporting a family in the modern world, thus, having a job and a partner in “Karen” is splendid. A wondering man starts to disturb him and instantly wants to take a street detour. This suddenly releases numerous disturbing visions over frightening flashbacks. As everything starts to replay, the fictional memories does seem a little too much. A combination of the mind playing tricks and a supportive narrative brings back the sight of memories. As everything draws back, a young adult suddenly bursts out.
While trying to make sense of his bizarre memories, Fred starts remembering the long-lost girl Cindy, who disappeared after taking the potent hallucinogen Mercury. Mercury was well-known among students during Fred’s teenage years because of its purported ability to unlock time and space perception. Fred understands that his memories are not just memories, but slivers of alternate realities of his life through these flashbacks.
He was not only troubled by visions of the life he had led but now had questions about Cindy’s life too. This quest leads Fred to look for his old friends like Andre and Sebastian, who had also used Mercury. They start remembering and revisiting old places, and as they do, the lines between the past, present, and future start to fade away. Fred starts experiencing what seems to be different timelines all at once from different versions of his life, each depicting the outcomes he could have faced based on the decisions he made or didn’t make.
In some scenarios, he transforms into a corporate runaway who escapes with Cindy, while in others, he opts for the traditional life with Karen, abandoning all the enigmas of his youthful years. Fred’s decision ultimately leads him to accepting a compressive life trajectory or a lavish, limitless meandering existence that Mercury exposed him to. The film reaches a fever pitch with a chaotic, yet mesmerizing blend of timelines, self-discovery, and hallucinations.
Main Characters and Performances
Dylan O’Brien as Fredrick Fitzell
Dylan O’Brien as Fredrick Fitzell demonstrates a deeply felt and strikingly multifaceted performance as a man who is perpetually drawn towards a past that is already long gone, and the whispers of unfulfilled dreams. His performance is exact and understated, reflective of someone who needs to act on his fears and regrets and the solitude. This deeply felt and breathtaking portrayal adds to the Fredrick’s multifaceted character.
Maika Monroe as Cindy Williams
Cindy is not only a lost love, but also a representation of personal emancipation. Monroe portrays this character masterfully with a blend of charm and mystique. She marked the start of Fred’s metamorphosis, and after that, she is inextricably associated with every component of his life that he forfeited or did not have the motivation to chase.
**Hannah Gross as Karen
In Karen’s archetype, Fred has a loving and supportive partner in his current reality. Karen embodies comfort and safety, both as a person and in the relationship. Hannah Gross’s portrayal brings warmth to the role and the contrast to the more chaotic and surreal elements of the story.
Emory Cohen and Keir Gilchrist
They play Fred’s high school friends who also experimented with Mercury. These relationships glimpse shared trauma in the aftermath of youthful reckless experimentation and the costly impact of unprocessed memories.
Themes and Symbolism
Perception of Time
The most dominant theme in Flashback is the idea of time not being linear but, rather, being multidimensional. The film posits that every possible action taken—and not taken—splits reality into new paths. With Mercury, Fred can step outside the constraints of time and view his life as a vast network of interconnected timelines of overlapping paths.
Memory and Identity
Memory shapes identity, and the film poses this question to further examine who is Fred. The journey becomes more than tracking Cindy to her last known whereabouts as it is also a confrontation with the ego and forgotten parts of the self. Uncovering memories reveals passions, fears, and ideals that were once suppressed.**
Choice and Regret
Fred’s struggles are closely intertwined with the interplay of liberty and obligation. The film poses the question: what if you were afforded the opportunity to go back and live the life that you did not choose? Would you still retain your sense of self? Fred’s reflections demonstrate that even the most minute choices can have far-reaching effects through the passage of time and can shape entire identities and destinies.
Visual Style and Direction
The direction of Christopher MacBride is experimental and multifaceted. Echoing visuals, sudden shifts of color, and halting cuts are all devices he uses to illustrate the blurred boundaries where timelines meet. Recurring imagery such as hallways, mirrors, nightclubs, and faces shrouded augment the sensation of déjà vu and temporal instability.
Disorientation becomes part of the experience as the film unfolds, Fred and viewers are simultaneously placed into an uncertain world where “what is being shown[][] is real, remembered, or imagined.” This focuses the empathy one can feel towards the protagonist’s psychological condition.
In tandem, the score and sound design sets the surreal tone of the film, employing piercing rhythms, ambient drones, and silences to divinely mark the shifts of time and perception.
Reception and Interpretation
Reception towards Flashback was divided. On one end of the spectrum, viewers considered its intricacies to be its greatest charm, praising its ambition and complexity alongside its philosophical cascades of depth, positioning it amongst films like, Donnie Darko, Enter the Void, and Primer. They pointed out the film’s structure to be one of its greatest merits, alongside the freedom it provides viewers to draw their own conclusions.
Other reviewers consider it self-indulgent, with an almost incoherent plot that requires effort to follow. Dylan O’Brien’s performance, however, is widely praised as anchor ing the story emotionally, providing a sense of continuity in an otherwise fragmented narrative.
The film accepts a plethora of interpretations. Was it all a spiral of a hallucination? Did Fred’s journey traverse the bounds of time, or did he simply explore the caverns of his mind? Did he concretely “choose” a life, or is he a passive traveler eternally bound to one journey? Deliberately not answering these questions allows for the deepest discussions after watching the film.
Concluding paragraphs
As a single entry in the growing library of unique cinematic Flashback is an exceptional film that defies any complex bastardization. Flashback can be described as a memory shrouded with mystery, a time trap love story, and a haunting investigation of a world where the past and future live intertwined in the daily choices we make.
Challenging the viewer’s understanding of time, identity, and feelings of regret, Flashback is equipped with powerful performances, a haunting atmosphere, and a story that unfolds like a mental puzzle. Casual watchers will not find it enjoyable, but the deeply engaging experience layers through the film is a timeless journey through the complex web of human thought.
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