Review: RIVER (2023) [Fantastic Fest]
Anarchic Time Loop Hilarity Is The Best Of The Fest
Regret is a powerful burden that can weigh people down. What if you had done things differently? Or not done them at all? If you knew then what you know now, how many of your decisions would alter? That’s where time loop stories come in. Along with the multiverse, time loop has become an increasingly popular plot device in narratives over the past five or so years: a character (or a few characters) finds themselves constantly repeating the same length of time over and over, with them being the only thing that changes—they are the only variable in a field of constants. The two are closely related in terms of systems in which characters explore various realities based on their decisions. Multiverse tales are ones that look forward, thinking about how each possibility branches off and becomes a separate reality; each is a place where you got to experience every possible outcome of a situation. Time Loop stories are focused on regret—if we just had enough time, we could get it right. We could become the best version of ourselves, solve everything, and eventually create a better future. But we need that static time to try it all out and recognize where we’re falling short. If we had but time enough at last to choose the “right” way instead of blundering through another day.
RIVER, directed by Junta Tamaguchi and written by Makoto Ueda, is the latest film from the Kikaku Theater group—who brought us another time loop movie previously with BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES. They’ve settled on another two minutes of importance as a small group of people find themselves constantly repeating the same two minutes over and over again. The quaint resort town of Kibune, Kyoto is host to the tranquil Fujiya inn, where works humble waitress Mikoto (Riko Fujitani).
Mikoto realizes that she is stuck in a two minute loop where everything resets and starts back over in the same two minute span of the day. Well…not everything resets because all of the people in the affected area retain their memories and are aware of what is befalling them. They all have to work together to accomplish as much as they can in two minutes in order to figure out the source and, hopefully, break free from the cycle.
Not every film that is brimming with heart and charm can also boast impressive technical feats. But, for the second time now, Kikaku Theater has pulled off a tremendous story with incredible performances that require a mastery of technical feats that include brilliant blocking, editing, and cinematography…and it looks great too! Since each of these pillars of filmmaking are strong, the entire movie is exceptionally solid, wholly engaging, and wildly original. RIVER is easily the best movie that I’ve seen so far at Fantastic Fest this year. The amount of time I spent smiling and laughing barely outpaces how often I marveled at some accomplishment Yamaguchi and company have pulled off.
There are cuts in RIVER that are hidden so well that it would be hard for the best editors to find them. A terrific sense of location and setting that gets explored more and more with each loop passing. Brilliant blocking allows for characters to pop up in just the right place at just the right time for greatest impact to the plot and the tone. And as impressive as all of that technical stuff is, the script by Ueda bests that level of accomplishment with its pithy work and novel approaches. The audience understands who each character is, literally and emotionally, with just one pass of the loop but that only deepens and expands with every subsequent loop that follows. Meanwhile, by having a whole group cognizant of the change—recognizing and embracing the concept pretty early on—leads to unexpected comedy of manners with growing anarchic events that are all based on that well-defined cast of characters.
Time loop stories have really exploded in the past decade, most of them married to other subgenres and/or high concepts. There’s the slasher + time loop of HAPPY DEATH DAY and HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U, the sheer terror of TRIANGLE, the rom coms PALM SPRINGS and THE INFINITE MAN, the procedural thriller of SOURCE CODE, the action-packed BOSS LEVEL, and the sci-fi adventures of EDGE OF TOMORROW (to name just a few). RIVER is another narrative marriage, this time the time loop story joining with a madcap screwball comedy—and it works perfectly. The joy is seeing the characters trying to figure out how to map their very limited time with each other, while also trying to be the best versions of themselves, while also also trying to escape their stuck status.
Even though Mikoto is the main character and the lens through which the audience experiences everything, the story also succeeds on this communal aspect of everyone working together towards these common goals…eventually. Each character gets to show off the different reactions to the situation that we’ve seen—those who are thrilled with the lack of consequences, those that use it to refine who they are, those that discover something new with each passthrough, and more. That kaleidoscopic approach efficiently explores the world the filmmakers have created, including all the different possibilities laid at the feet of the entire cast, but also allows for more interactions and exchanges of different emotional states—which leads to hilarious outcomes, genuinely tender moments, and terrifically sweet scenes of humanity.
The latest offering of the Kikaku Theater group is an utter triumph that will completely amaze viewers with its authenticity and imagination. The amount of technical prowess is enormous, but never showy or overwhelmingly insistent on its genius; there is a subtlety to all of it that allows for the focus to be on the story and performances, but one can’t help but marvel at what was accomplished. RIVER is uproariously funny and powered by a lot of heart, helping us see that regrets may be what ties us to the past while we desperately question our future.
