A Sci-Fi Romance That Warps More Than Time

Read Time:5 Minute, 20 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Futra Days
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Genre: Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Year Released: 2024, 2025
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director(s): Ryan David
Writer(s): Ryan David
Cast: Tania Raymonde, Brandon Sklenar, Rosanna Arquette, Jordan Christian Hearn, Kimberly Estrada, Emily McEnroe, Kenny Copeland Jr., Martica De Cardenas
Where to Watch: available now from Reel 2 Reel Films

RAVING REVIEW: FUTRA DAYS is one of those films that’s difficult to dismiss entirely, even if you’re checking your watch by the halfway point. Writer-director Ryan David builds an intriguing premise—a man given the chance to travel through time to preview the outcome of a potential relationship—and then slowly drains it of urgency by focusing less on the sci-fi elements and more on the glacial tension between its characters.

This isn’t a bad film, but it is a sluggish one. At its core is Sean, played by Brandon Sklenar, a depressed musician still reeling from a recent breakup. When he meets the charming and enigmatic Nichole (Tania Raymonde), he falls fast—but instead of risking heartache again, Sean seeks certainty. Enter Rosanna Arquette as Dr. Felicia Walter, who offers him the chance to see his potential future with Nichole. It's a compelling hook, full of possibilities—but the movie’s actual interest lies less in exploring time travel and more in letting its central characters stew in discomfort and ambiguity.

That’s not inherently a problem with the story itself. Numerous strong films utilize speculative fiction to evoke strong emotions. The trouble is that FUTRA DAYS feels like it’s trying to stretch about 45 minutes of actual substance across a full feature runtime. Once the novelty of the premise wears off, what remains is a lot of quiet conversations, long silences, and contemplative stares into nowhere. It’s the kind of movie where you start wondering how many shots of someone sitting alone in a room you’ve seen—and how many more are coming.

To the film’s credit, the performances do a lot of heavy lifting. Sklenar brings a sincere vulnerability to Sean, and Raymonde is perfectly cast as someone who feels both grounded and just slightly unknowable. Arquette, too, brings a powerful take to her brief appearances, walking a fine line between a grounded scientist and a dispassionate observer. The cast is doing the work, but they’re often underserved by a script that keeps spinning its wheels without deepening the stakes.

Tonally, the film plays things incredibly low-key. The sci-fi is more suggestion than spectacle. Time travel here is more metaphor than mechanics, and the film makes no effort to explain how it works. This could have been a strength had the film leaned harder into its emotional consequences. Instead, we get a sort of narrative limbo—scenes that feel like they’re waiting for something to happen, and never quite getting there.

David is more interested in the implications of foresight than in its logistics. But even that thread feels underdeveloped. There’s not enough contrast between what Sean sees in the future and what he experiences in the present. The result is a blurry loop of longing, doubt, and inaction. There are moments of clarity and resonance, but they’re scattered and often too subtle to anchor a full-length narrative.

Visually, the film is well-composed, with a muted color palette that matches its introspective mood. The atmosphere is consistent, if repetitive. There’s a sense that everything is happening under a cloud—a fitting metaphor for Sean’s headspace, but also one that doesn’t evolve much over time. The pacing, while deliberate, tends to be somewhat stagnant. What starts as contemplative quickly becomes tedious, especially when the story doesn’t seem to be building toward a significant payoff.

By the end, FUTRA DAYS doesn’t collapse so much as it gently fizzles out. It leaves you with a few interesting questions—about fate, choice, and the illusion of control in relationships—but offers few answers, and not much emotional catharsis. It’s not the kind of film that sticks with you because of its depth or daring. It lingers more as a curiosity—an example of a good concept weighed down by an overly restrained execution.

There’s a shorter, sharper version of this film that might have had a greater impact. As a short film, FUTRA DAYS could have delivered its concept with clarity and momentum. But stretched across 90+ minutes, it struggles to justify its runtime. It doesn’t crash and burn—it just drifts, gently, into the void of “almost.”

In the end, FUTRA DAYS isn’t something to avoid, but it’s also hard to recommend. It’s an interesting idea, well-acted, and occasionally moving, but it’s buried under so much stillness that the emotional payoff barely registers. It’s fine. Not good, not bad. Just there. Which, ironically, might make it the perfect film about people who are afraid to act until it’s too late.

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[photo courtesy of REEL 2 REEL FILMS]

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