REVERSION

Written and Directed By Mia Trachinger

Review By Shane Morton

Reversion is a “lo-fi sci-fi” urban Oedipus Rex where the characters know their future and try to stop it from happening with catastrophic effects.  A very original morality tale set in a lawless Los Angeles where a sect of humanity has split off from the gene pool and has become un-linear in time.  They know the past, present and future all at the same time.  And because of this ability, these “mutants” have no regard for the law , humanity or even their own lives, because they know how it will all end.  This knowledge has led them to lead lives outside society. 

Eva (Leslie Silva), and her surrogate son Ray (Tom Maden) are on their way to the supermarket.  They steal a car, get car-jacked, and witness a hold-up all within the first few minutes of this film.  It makes you wonder what kind of ride you are in for.  And it keeps delivering.  Ray grabs the gun and runs away into the day.  Eva shrugs it off and goes shopping in the supermarket (meaning she eats some food in the aisles) and steals another car.  She gets car-jacked again and runs into a man she is not happy to see Marcus (Jason Olive).  They have seen the future and know that she will kill him enraged.  He is ready to rush towards his destiny and love and die.  Theirs is a passionate love that will end in tragedy and Eva will do everything in her power to stop it.

She decides to go to the beach where there is a rumor of a cure for their condition.  Marcus goes with her because he wants to be with her.  She goes because she is desperate to avoid her fate.  They find the journey littered with obstacles trying to prevent them from arriving at their destination.  But finally they make it to the beach.  There they are told that there is no way to help them.  But maybe just by making the trip to the beach they have found their “cure”.  Eva leaves her gun in the sand and they leave.

Eva and Marcus come back to her commune.  There we meet Eva’s housemates.  They do not like Marcus and know the inevitable outcome of the future between these two.  They want him to leave but he stays anyway.  Eva and Marcus both feel different after the beach and Marcus decides he does not want to die.  Eva believes that they can have the happy ending and avoid their fate.  When Ray comes home after being away, Marcus starts to lose his grip.  He becomes more erratic and scared and starts searching for the gun that Ray brought into the house.  In one moment, he completely loses it and Eva is forced to deal with the role that fate has given her to play.

This is a hard story to give a synopsis on.  The characters and story is very complex and the acting is top notch.  Mia Trachinger has created a world that knows no boundaries or rules and like many of the great Greek tragedies, knowing the ending doesn’t mean anything.  Because you have a very cool time getting there.