PLOT: A slick-looking, near-future thriller about twins Bax and April. When April goes missing, Bax searches every dark corner of the post-Soviet cityscape trying to find her, ultimately descending into madness.
REVIEW: Not long before Connor Storrie hit the ice (and the sheets) with Hudson Williams in the sensational adaptation of Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series for Crave‘s Heated Rivalry, he starred in April X, a cerebral sci-fi thriller that harkens back to movies like Blade Runner and Strange Days, but lacks the compelling narrative of either.
Michel K. Parandi’s April X splits its focus in half. On one side, we find Storrie’s Bax, a synthetic organ thief running out of time after a heart he peddled malfunctions. On the other hand, his twin sister, April (Lilly Krug), sells her lucid dreams and memories to high-paying voyeurs. Apparently, no one in this world dreams anymore, so the fact that April’s nightly visions are controlled and grandiose makes them a high-value product. April’s disappearance plunges Bax into the city’s fluorescent underbelly, where he uncovers a network of clones grown from his sister’s gifted mind. Driven by guilt, Bax vows to find her and restore her memories as penance for leading them both down a dark path.
Shortly after April’s disappearance, the film skips five years ahead, with Bax still consumed by his guilt and desperate to discover the truth about his sister. At times, the film feels like it wants to be a meditation on loneliness, desperation, and sex as a way of connecting in a world that’s grown cold, impersonal, and unable to dream. Still, Bax, despite being played by a brooding and hypnotic Storrie, feels more one-dimensional than the story warrants.
Storrie is an up-and-coming actor with gravitas. He carries Parandi and Jack Coulton’s story squarely on his shoulders, even when the disjointed and all-too-familiar tale gives him little to work with. Frustratingly, April X has the bones of a better film begging to be explored. The existential setup of a society without dreams is a playground for heady sci-fi-inspired ideas to run rampant, yet the film barely touches on that potential. Instead, the film concentrates on Bax’s downward spiral, the shallow mystery of April’s vanishing, and the takedown of a clone network that could redefine the sex trafficking trade. These threads are enough to keep the film interesting, yet I can’t help but feel as if the story could have yielded something more thought-provoking and original.
Another stand-out performance arrives courtesy of Serban Pavlu, who plays Klein, a well-connected criminal who, despite being a bit racist, exudes charisma while taking Bax on as his employee to help settle a debt between them. He’s ruthless, but fair, and I can’t help but notice his nurturing instincts as Bax settles into his employ. I enjoyed every scene featuring Klein, even if his contribution to the overall narrative feels like it’s of little consequence.
Starring opposite Storrie is Lilly Krug as April, a character I never quite warmed to. The film tries to paint her as an enigmatic figure in a world that’s forgotten how to dream, but I wasn’t feeling it. She’s taken out of the equation fairly early on, which broke my connection with her and led to a series of questions and assumptions that wasted valuable time. Oddly, her arc is the most intriguing aspect of the movie, with the mission to find her and restore her memories driving most of the action and intrigue.
To its credit, April X is fun to look at. The Romanian capital, where the film was shot on location, surrounds us with brutalist architecture, moody lighting, and minimalist design that implies a harsh future awaits. At times, April X feels like a music video that’s swallowed too many pills, though it also feels grounded and gritty in ways that make you want to go on a walking tour of its imposing concrete jungle backdrop.
Despite starring one of Hollywood’s most recognizable fresh faces, Storrie, April X is a sci-fi thriller that never fully realizes its potential. It could have introduced some wild ideas and characters, but it mostly sticks to the lines and doesn’t do enough to stand out from other films of its kind. It’s absolutely worth a watch if you want to see Storrie bring his magnetism and immense talent to well-worn territory. Still, hardcore sci-fi fans could find themselves unaffected by this melancholic meditation on crime, clones, and dreams that amount to little more than smoke on the wind.
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