Kevin Philips
Super Dark Times

One of the most intrusive trends of this period regarding the cinematic and television universe is the "revival" products. It all started with that great TV series that is "Stranger Things", a series that literally dredges up every possible cliché of the '80s, revitalizing it with modern technologies while keeping that pop aesthetic that now belongs to that specific past as unchanged as possible.
"Stranger Things" became an unexpected hit for Netflix and besides being already a classic of the small screen, it also spawned a series of films and TV shows that pay homage in turn to the '80s and '90s. Most of these products, while not excelling like ST, remain nevertheless unremarkable; however, one misses the classic "touch" of the director or creator on duty.

Then there is "Super Dark Times"; a film that hardly anyone noticed, not even by accident. After all, the plot, at first glance, seems very much in line with products that copy ST: a nostalgic historical context, friendships reminiscent of "Stand by Me", quotes from films/events/games of the era, and so on. The little publicity given to this film certainly affected its reduced visibility, moreover, the summary of the story, which suggests just another juvenile drama like many others, does not fully convey the many interesting insights it actually contains within its interior to the eyes of a Netflix binge watcher.

Well, I'm not exactly a binge-watching fanatic and I don't care much about watching all the TV series on the globe just to look cool with friends who have Netflix, but I love the '90s. I love that "indie" nature that taints the music, films, and collective imagination of that decade, something I think the more glorified '80s lack. This led me to watch "Super Dark Times" for pure fun, without expecting any masterpiece, just for that nostalgic reference to the '90s that was already hinted at from the film's poster.

To begin with, "Super Dark Times" absolutely does not want to make the nostalgic move à la "Stranger Things": the various quotes are there, but they do not cover the entire film; instead, they merely serve as a "background" to the story, which initially presents itself as a classic dramatic tale but as time goes by increasingly morphs into a psychological thriller. "Super Dark Times" therefore corrects a flaw that has more or less affected all post-ST products: having stories, situations, and characters copied from other already existing works and reinserting them in a modern context, thus more of a tribute than something truly new and interesting. SDT focuses on the protagonists and lets the '90s remain a simple historical context that at most influences the dialogues and social interactions typical of those times.

The director therefore prefers to concentrate on the psychology of the two main characters: Josh, an introverted and calm boy, and Zach, more extroverted and blunt. Initially, we see them as the classic teenagers encountered every day at school or with groups of friends, yet a very tragic event completely changes their life and friendship.
I can't narrate the incident due to spoilers, suffice it to say that with such a big drama, one cannot live forever as if nothing happened: and it's at this point that Zach has to come to terms with Josh's radical change, who to "hide" his discomfort starts to deeply alter his character, although he chooses to remain mysterious in the eyes of others.

Throughout the story, some dreamlike sequences regarding Zach's nightmares have been inserted which, for a rookie director, I must say have been really well done, including the reference/homage to Antichrist (the sex scene in the woods that appears about halfway through). From a directorial point of view, the film fully mirrors the indie aesthetic of directors of the time: the town is a classic Twin Peaks but inserted in an adolescent story that is more a portrait of that era, thus realistic and stripped from an aesthetic perspective rather than a fantastic or science fiction narrative à la Twin Peaks or X-Files. Don't expect Lynch, rather a product in the style of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine, a realistic context broken only by a couple of slightly over-the-top sequences (including the finale) but equally functional to the narration.

The direction thus manages to capture the typical troubles of a teenager from the period, combining first crushes, friendships, and school with a thriller-style story that touches each of these everyday aspects, ending up damaging the relationships of the two main characters. All this is tied together by a truly excellent original score and also a series of typically alt-rock and punk adolescent tracks present in the film. Again, do not think of these callbacks as something essential but as tributes inserted without imposing themselves on the genesis of the main story and functional only to better frame the historical period in which everything takes place.

Super Dark Times therefore proved to be an exceptional and unjustly underrated drama, a child of those youth-styled films like "Kids" that simply narrate reality without overly emphasizing the context in a "hollywoodian" way. Moreover, the director succeeds in adding personality to the film with a series of memorable scenes that break the down-to-earth realism of the context and make it an interesting and "authored" product. Highly recommended if you have Netflix or if you're crazy about the '90s, as well as for its good fluidity and enigmatic ending.