What would you do if you and your friends found a gateway to numerous alternate dimensions? Well, that’s the question Parallel attempts to answer. While the premise was interesting enough, compelling even, it didn’t capitalize on that potential and played out about as predictably as you’d expect.
Imagine, if you will, HBO’s Silicon Valley mashed together with James Ward Brykit’s 2013 indie film Coherence, without the humor or the stylish cerebral approach from either. It seemed to trade actual substance for the perception of cleverness. The visual style holds up, it’s paced well, and there are some cool moments of sci-fi gadgetry, but Isaac Ezban’s movie is never elevated beyond the characters’ relentless selfishness.
Georgia King (Leena), Martin Wallström (Noel), Mark O’Brien (Josh), and Aml Ameen (Devin) were all solid in their performances. However, Scott Blaszak’s screenplay and character design that ultimately did them in. This particular friend group is never compelling from the outset and they are hardly believable as actual friends.
In one scene, Josh pleads with Devin to hang out because he supposedly misses their friendship. However, it appears Josh brought Devin along for a threesome with his “alt” girlfriend but, instead, he asks Devin to wait downstairs and listen to him have sex. Seriously, WTF?!? This was the moment of bonding friendship that Blaszak chose to go with…that’s some friend you got there, Devin.
As a group of struggling young programmers, working, living, and partying together, there’s at least something tangible to ground them and you tacitly want them to succeed. That all dissolves pretty quickly as they all use the alternate realities to pursue their own self-interests. I understand that absolute power corrupts, and never held them in particularly high regard, but it’s amazing how quickly they became the shittiest versions of themselves. Noel just wants money and fame, Leena wants respect and success, Josh just wants to get laid in the other reality, and Devin is looking for a reality in which his dad is still alive. It’s the latter, who is supposed to be the moral compass and while his pursuit may be the purest of the group, it’s ultimately selfish as well. Even when he voices dissent, he ultimately adheres to the majority rules mentality and aside from being grumpy, he’s not exactly the “good guy” in the equation.
The most compelling story told in the movie is the one that got the least attention. In the process of discovering the portal, they come across the journals of the old woman who used it before them. Leena is initially very interested but swiftly gives it the old “whatevs” and disregards it. Devin picks up reading the journals and he recognizes the cautionary tale, he too doesn’t really give it much weight. That woman’s story has an arc that’s romantic and twisted and compelling. That’s what this movie should have been, a stripped-down story with a bold and provocative concept. Instead, we got a movie that prioritized style over substance and lost its soul in the process. Maybe that’s the version of this movie in an alternate reality.
It’s another instance where I wouldn’t say it’s a bad movie, it was entertaining enough and, for the most part, I liked it. It just leveraged the most intriguing part of the story as window dressing for the eventual “things go terribly wrong and power corrupts the guy who was already an asshole” plot. It could have been so much more, plus it ends with one of those gotcha moments that were popular in horror films from the first decade of the 2000s. Definitely not the kind of endearing creativity that’ll give this movie legs. I can see why it made the festival rounds in 2018 and didn’t get released for two years after that.
Recommendation: If you have a penchant for sci-fi films, it’s worth a gander even though it’s aimed more of a popcorn sci-fi offering.