Jun 21

Jun 21 Tribeca Festival movie review: 'Ultrasound'

The sci-fi mystery 'Ultrasound' (screening during the 2021 Tribeca Festival) opens with a neighborly man offering a stranger the chance to sleep with his wife - and uses this absurd jumping off point to dive into wilder territory still.

In short: After his car breaks down, Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) spends an odd night with a married couple who give him shelter, while elsewhere, Katie (Rainey Qualley) struggles with a secret relationship and Shannon (Breeda Wool) has ethical doubts about an experiment she's working on.

From start to finish, 'Ultrasound' continuously throws bizarre twist and "wtf" turn at the audience - leaving the audience without any solid footing as the film stingily dispenses crazy reveal after reveal. The film's first act has an indistinct, dream-like quality. The script lays out fractured, disparate pieces, none of which seem to fit together. But as the script unfolds, it's clear these puzzle pieces eerily fit together, with the viewing experience of 'Ultrasound' feeling like putting a puzzle together, without knowing what the final image is supposed to look like.

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Without laying out - in great detail - the third act, it's almost impossible to spoil 'Ultrasound' outright. Even if someone pulled back the curtain to reveal all the plot's secrets, it would be very difficult for anyone just reading a plot synopsis to reconcile how the third and first acts are connected - because they seem so completely removed from each other. Although the script doesn't spoon-feed its plot by any means, all the pieces are there - waiting for the audience to piece everything together. If anything, the third act works a bit too hard to wrap everything up in a neat bow. The b-plot involving Katie's involvement in an extramarital affair - a storyline with very little apparent connection to Glen or Shannon's character arcs - does feel extraneous in the end, existing only to justify the story's other moving parts.

This film's major victory is in instilling a complete mistrust of anything going on - because 'Ultrasound' twists the notions of perception and reality. Nothing is as straightforward as it seems. Just when the story seems just within grasp, the script throws in yet another curveball for the audience to manage. Virtually very scene ends with a tantalizing stinger - mini "wtf" revelations that constantly the audience not only guessing "what's next," but also "wait - what!?"

Final verdict: A film this intentionally fractal can't rely on mystery alone to hold the viewer's attention - and 'Ultrasound' grabs the audience and doesn't let go until the film's final moments.