Directors: Heather Ballish, Mia Moore Marchant
Writer: Mia Moore Marchant
Stars: Mia Moore Marchant, Aria Taylor, Abigail Thorn
Synopsis: After reliving the same day over and over again for 10 years, Agatha awakens to realize she’s escaped and now faces the horrifying reality of a brand new day.
Time loops have almost always been associated with some sort of comedy. It’s a great gag machine because it’s the same sequence over and over again. Most time loops eventually come to a point where the protagonist can’t stand it any more and needs to get out. Yet, when they do get to “tomorrow,” the film and the protagonist don’t have time for getting used to or reintegrated back into linear time. To be suddenly thrust into the unknown, in spite of the familiar things about the world around you, would be jarring to say the least. Depending on how long the loop was, it could be an existential nightmare. This is where we find Agatha (Mia Moore Marchant) at the beginning of Again Again.
The film is so conceptually refreshing. We get the depth of time loop flashbacks mixed with the deeply tragic drama of being thrust back into linear life. Agatha’s time loop was the equivalent of ten years. She’s essentially lived a large chunk of her life stuck in one place. It feels like a prison sentence or a bad relationship that one just can’t get out of. Agatha knows so much about Tessa (Aria Taylor), her partner, that it becomes hard to forget, hard to get a sense of the Tessa in front of her. It happens with all the people Agatha’s met. She’s known them all, but they don’t know that.
So much of Mia Moore Marchant’s excellent script is about the trauma of knowing everyone else’s deepest secrets. Agatha knows that Tessa is questioning their relationship because she’s never expressed an attraction to women, let alone a trans woman before. This needling thought now that she can go somewhere else, now that she’s not stuck is itching just below her skin. In several loops Agatha strayed and cheated on Tessa to try and get away from the pain of her memories. Yet, when Agatha seeks out her most intense of these liaisons, Naomi (Abigail Thorn), in the linear world, they’re strangers. The intimacy and affection the two of them built in different loops is completely gone, but those memories are stuck in Agatha’s head and she desperately wants it like a lifeline. These interactions show Agatha how much she needs to find a way to break free.
One of the best sequences brought together by directors Marchant and Heather Ballish is like this. In the timeline of Friday, the day the loop ends, Agatha hears a familiar sound as Tessa picks up her bass guitar and tries to play a song she’s been learning. What follows is a sequence of the same mistake played in loop after loop. At first Agatha is understanding, then frustrated, and finally tortured by the same mistake. On this Friday, though, Agatha decides to do something else. She gives advice and sits behind Tessa so the two of them can play through the song together as Tessa sings. It becomes a revelatory scene, which shifts into beautiful, romantic love. In this scene it’s like Agatha can only remember the best things about Tessa and how much she loves her.
Again Again has several powerful moments. It’s not a comedy, but it embraces the comedy of Agatha finding herself suddenly in “tomorrow.” There’s a scene where Tessa and Agatha are trying to have a heart-to-heart in the park when Agatha spies a teenager she’d seen in many of her loops. When the teen lands the kick flip he was desperately trying all “yesterday,” Agatha suddenly has a proud parent moment where she cheers for him as he skates away. Then there’s her unbridled joy that she can attend the demolition derby that she saw so many posters for, but thought she’d never be able to see.
The film is deep and delightful, but also flawed in many ways. It’s a debut feature on a very tight budget, so there is bound to be amateurish bits and things that look rushed. Yet, this is a film where you have to turn off that nit picking side of your brain. There is something absolutely special here. The story and characters are so fully formed. The relationship drama is intense, focused, and existentially complicated. The messiness of queerness in both sexuality and gender is plowed into in a way that’s refreshing and earnest.
Again Again is a film that takes a heady concept and brings it into the fabulous microcosm of a troubled relationship. The revelations within about how the time loop started, who Tessa and Agatha are to each other, and what life could be like if they head into the unknown with eyes open is entrancing. This is a film that you walk into with an open heart and feel a sense of fullness, love, and light after having seen it. It’s a beautiful film, flaws and all.
