Aporia Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Aporia Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 5, 2023

"Aporia" is an actual condition, though my hunch is few will know the word, even if they've repeatedly experienced what it describes, namely a feeling of confusion, puzzlement or (in the world of formal rhetoric) doubt. This is another one of those films with such an absolutely preposterous conceit that some may feel pretty substantial eye rolling may be on the horizon, but as it turns out, as ludicrous as the underpinning of the film's plot may in fact be, the end result is rather interesting at times and if not quite as emotionally cathartic as seems to be the aim, is still generally compelling, especially in light of a nuanced performance by star Judy Greer.

There are too many properties that have been fashioned for both the large and small screens which involve time travel and unintended consequences to even begin to summarize, but Aporia takes that same general conceit of "if I could turn back time" which then of course tends to ripple out in unexpected ways once that seemingly impossible feat has been achieved. In this particular instance, it's perhaps made even more inherently ridiculous in that an invention at the center of the story can actually only kill someone in the past, supposedly to prevent another tragedy. Guess how that works out.

The story revolves around harried nurse Sophie (Judy Greer), whose life was completely upended relatively recently by the death of her husband Malcolm (Edi Gathegi) at the hands of drunk driver Darby (Adam O’Byrne). As she wrestles with her profound grief and anger as well as the pressing demands of her high stress job, she also has to contend with misbehaving daughter Riley (Faithe Herman), who is obviously in the throes of trauma herself after the death of her father. Writer and director Jared Moshe sets this all up with a minimum of fuss and/or bother, if also maybe just a bit too melodramatically, but he then goes for the gusto with the completely lunatic plot device involving Malcolm's erstwhile best friend and partner Jabir (Payman Maadi), who has invented a "time travelling killing machine". Jabir has his own reasons for wanting to exact a little "revenge in hindsight", so to speak, but he offers Sophie the chance to "rescue" Malcolm by sacrificing Darby, a proposal she accepts seemingly happily if maybe just slightly warily.

It frankly doesn't matter that Moshe tries to particularize the "mode" by which the time travel experiment is defined, because the upshot is pretty much exactly like virtually any other story you can name involving time travel where things of course pretty much instantly go awry in "present time", or at best you're waiting with bated breath for the other karmic shoe to drop after a temporary happily ever after (and/or before, as it were). To Moshe's credit, the distinctive thing about Aporia is it doesn't really depend on this perceived sci-fi element, and instead tends to focus more on interpersonal relationships, which in this case end up involving Darby's survivors, widow Kara (Whitney Morgan Cox) and daughter Aggie (Veda Cienfuegos).

I have to say I was honestly a little annoyed when Moshe even went down the time travel tunnel, if admittedly kind of tangentially, but he at least tries to shuffle the deck of genre tropes. If he doesn't completely succeed, he offers nice showcases for an often quite interesting cast.

Aporia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Aporia is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The Behind the Scenes featurette included as a supplement on this disc has a couple of fleeting glimpses of Arri Alexa cameras, and I assume this had a 2K DI. This is not a film that offers really any kind of "sci-fi wonderment", and from a production design standpoint is more of a "kitchen sink drama", and as such the palette is somewhat subdued and lighting conditions can be less than optimal. Things still have a naturalistic look, and some of the brightly lit hospital scenes in particular pop rather nicely. Detail levels are generally very good, with the exception of some yellow graded interior moments where fine detail can ebb a bit. My score is 4.25.

Aporia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Aporia features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that derives most of its surround activity courtesy of ambient environmental sounds, as in a bowling alley scene between Sophie and Riley, or courtesy of the understated score by H. Scott Salinas. As with the visual presentation, this is not a sonic powerhouse despite its perceived time travel element. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Aporia Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (HD; 18:32) is a decent EPK with candid footage and interviews.


• Trailer (HD; 2:27)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically (so that clicking on Behind the Scenes is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover.

Aporia Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The McGuffin of this piece is completely ridiculous, and it's probably not helped by one of the film's few overt nods to the science fiction genre, namely a rather long look at a supposedly high-falutin' invention, which in this case looks like some remnant from a previously unknown bus and truck theatrical version of Brazil. I frankly think Aporia might have been even more powerful if this whole aspect had simply been referred to, rather than actually depicted, but even with that passing qualm, the film takes a really hoary trope and rather deftly twists and turns it into a more personal examination of grief and connection. Technical merits are generally solid, and the making of EPK decently enjoyable. Recommended.