Michael and Peter Spierig (2014)
Just when one thought Interstellar was the final word on temporal paradox, Predestination comes along.
Predestination is the Spierig brothers' 3th feature film, following 2009' Daybreakers, possibly last decade's best SiFi vampire movie (not that The MacMahonian recalls very stiff competition in this particular subgenre…).
Predestination plot defies synopsis without compromising logical sequence (btw, that's a compliment) and involves a Temporal Agent (Ethan Hawke), shuttling back and forth in the 20th century trying, on the one hand, to prevent a terrorist called the Fizzle Bomber to commit his bombings and, on the other, to protect/recruit to the Temporal Service a young lady (Sarah Snook) who was born with two full sets of sexual organs and therefore, after giving birth to a baby girl and ensuing surgical malfunctions, becomes a man. Then it starts to get complicated.
Predestination is based on a short story by Robert A Heinlein, in whose work androgyny/multilayered sexual identity themes are recurrent, and the fact that the directors are twins probably also warmed them to the subject matter, although I'll refrain from expanding on this last point for fear of giving away too much of the plot (not that that would be an easy task). Beside the mindboggling genealogy, which makesSplice (Vincenzo Natali, 2009) look like Little Women, the film's charm resides in its pop-noirish art direction, staging the 1940, 60s and 70s (when most of the action takes place – I think) in a way that somehow makes precise period detail and wardrobe work curiously against realism.
The Spierig brothers opus grows in number and consistency. The MacMahonian will not let them out of sight.