Hannah MacPherson's "Time Cut," now on Netflix, was reportedly in production before the remarkably similar "Totally Killer." Still, the accusations that this film follows in that film's time-jumping footsteps are inevitable. But this film's failure can't be laid at the feet of a superior one. If that movie never existed—heck, if time jump movies in general never existed—this would still be a bad movie. The comparisons don't help, but nothing could.
Madison Bailey has been effective enough on Netflix's hit "Outer Banks" to believe she could carry a movie. Still, MacPherson has no idea how to direct her here, leading to a truly stranded, depressing lead performance. As Lucy Field, Bailey has 2.5 expressions: confused, scared, and scared confusion. She most often looks like she wishes she was in a better movie.
Lucy plays an ordinary girl in 2024 whose sister Summer (the better Antonia Gentry, maybe the only performer in the film allowed to show a modicum of charisma) was murdered two decades earlier. It turns out that, after Summer's death, her parents tried so hard to replace her with another child that they went through IVF to do so. (This will be important later. Trust me.)
Through a truly random discovery, Lucy ends up going back in time to the days before her sister's murder, determined to find the serial killer who's been hunting Sweetly. The small problem? As the interminable discussion of what we've learned from "Back to the Future" and the "Time Toaster" segment from "The Simpsons" makes clear: If Summer never dies, then her parents won't have the desire to create Lucy. Would you save your sister if it meant you were never born? It's kind of a daring emotional minefield for a movie like this to explore, but MacPherson and co-writer Michael Kennedy are barely interested in doing so. Instead, they create false stakes they don't even truly follow through on, resulting in one of the most insane endings I've ever seen, as everyone just smiles and laughs like a B-movie that ran out of film during a reshoot.
Most people won't make it to that ending. As Lucy runs around 2003 and the soundtrack drops bangers like Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday" and ogles the fashion of the era, "Time Cut" hits all the beats you expect it to hit. It's the kind of film that truly feels like a waste of a concept in that it produces no logical surprises or emotional stakes. Griffin Gluck, so great on "American Vandal" (man, I miss that show), is wasted as a thankless cog in the machine of this plot, and no one else makes an impact. In fact, most of the supporting players feel amateur at best. And when an entire cast grates with awkward line delivery and non-characters, the blame must be place on the director's inability to create an interesting world or give her characters anything worthwhile to do in it.
The note I kept taking during "Time Cut" was "clunky." And I'm a fan of dumb concept horror movies like this. I'm enjoying how people seem to find "Happy Death Day" every year, for example. It wasn't time hopping, but the silly "Freaky" was fun. There's so little "fun" here, feeling as if everyone is merely fulfilling an obligation. I was excited for another time jump movie with a twist. After this one, I just wanted my time back.
On Netflix now.
