Film Review: ‘Narcopolis’: Not Quite the High

Note: this article was also published on SciFi4Me.com.

Narcopolis, written and directed by Justin Trefgarne. Copyright 2015. Seen September 30, 2015. 

I think we all are enamored of the concept of time travel: the ability to go back and ‘fix’ things that have gone wrong in our life, or to visit those who have died too soon, or even with the quirky concept of slipping ahead just to find out next week’s winning lottery numbers.

The synopsis of Narcoplis doesn’t mention the time travel element in it. It talks of a gritty future where drugs are legal, and the conspiracy police officer Frank Grieves (Elliot Cowan) uncovers about a new super-drug and the mega-corp that manufactures it. However, in my interview with writer, director, and producer of the film Justin Trefgarne (which can be listened to here), Trefgarne mentions it fairly quickly, so I don’t think I’m giving away any spoilers by stating that the plot involves time travel. But even if you didn’t know, you realize that’s going to be a plot point the minute Grieves gives a copy of The Time Machine to his son.

On the positive side, the acting is excellent. Cowan does a great job playing the cop recovering from addiction and going through a separation from his wife, trying to balance his need for justice and wanting to do his job well and his home life – a trial I’m sure all good cops go through. He is the core to this film, and he acts his heart out.

We also have great turnouts by both Jonathan Pryce and James Callis in small but vital roles. The directing is – for the most part – tight. The action moves quickly, and Trefgarne does a good job of picking locations in London that are not noticeably recognizable. Finally, the cinematography is gorgeous – this is a beautiful film visually, with a London that’s maybe a bit too clean for the premise it’s built on, and soft lighting that is still gritty and harsh at the same time. The movie echoes some of the visualizations from Life on Mars (UK version) and what little I’ve seen of the UK series Utopia, with more than a hint of homage to Blade Runner.

However, this all is support for what is at heart a fairly predictable plot. When you look up “time travel films” in Wikipedia, there’s almost 300 entries. There’s a list on IMDB that has over 150 films. In other words, using time travel as a trope in storytelling is not new.

And unfortunately, that’s the biggest problem with Narcopolis. As stated above, if you are at all familiar with any time travel storyline, you can figure out fairly early on what’s going to happen, and not in an enjoyable ‘Oedipus-style where you see it coming and you’re just waiting for the fallout’ kind of way. Trefgarne also seems to not be quite sure what he wants to focus on, as it feels like two incomplete movies that got put into one: on one hand, we have the time travel plot; on the other, we have the story of Grieves and his fall from grace via drugs and his struggle to clean up and reconnect with his wife and child. While the two plots are connected, at the same time they feel like two separate stories that never quite join up.

There are a couple of moments that feel thrown in just for shock value – opening on a scene that includes a naked woman, and the fact that one of the drugs in the movie is taken by a needle through the eye. And while – as mentioned above – the pacing is fairly tight, it could easily be a half hour shorter and solve some of the predictability.

If you like dystopian movies that involve time travel, it’s definitely worth checking out. For the most part, the good outweighs the bad – especially if you’re willing to chant the MST3K mantra of “it’s just a movie”.

Narcopolis opens in New York City at the IFC Center, and on video on demand, on October 2. For more information, including being able to watch the trailer, visit the movie’s website.