Flashback, the much-anticipated new film by director Christopher MacBride, is an engrossing and poignant psychological thriller that delves into the nature of time and free-will in its story of a young man facing a crossroads in his life, play by a career best Dylan O’Brien.

As we get older, the choices we have made in our lives are often reflected upon. More often than not this is not a positive thing to do. A mind stuck in the past can stall the work of today and undercut the progress of tomorrow. Time in the meanwhile waits for no one, especially those stuck in a suspended state of regret.

This is where we find Fred Fitzell (Dylan O’Brien), a recently turned 30-year-old man who is juggling multiple life events: a new corporate job; a new fiancée in Karen (Hannah Gross); and the news that his mother (Liisa Repo-Martell) is dying.

One day an encounter with a disturbing figure from his past (Connor Smith) sends Fred into an existential tailspin to his time as a high-school senior, where he and his fellow misfit friends – drug dealer Sebastian (Emory Cohen), tweaker Andre (Keir Gilchrist), and first love Cindy (Maika Monroe) – experiment with the mind-altering drug “mercury”, resulting in Cindy’s disappearance one fateful and frightening night.

Flashback marks Christopher MacBride’s first feature film since his acclaimed debut The Conspiracy 13 years ago, and it reconfirms his standing as a filmmaker of strong visual style and immersive idea driven storytelling.

Flashback is indeed a perplexing watch, but one which delivers rewards both on an intelligent and emotional level, as this story of a 30-year-old man at the precipice on the next chapter in is life gives way to a journey where heavy weight themes of time and free will are explored. MacBride, to his credit, takes these subjects seriously, with big time stakes at play with every choice a ramification in a young life splintered between the domestic family life of today versus the destructive pitfalls of a drug addled existence of the past. Think It’s a Wonderful Life with way more psychedelic stimulants.

Navigating all of these elements is Dylan O’Brien, who delivers the best performance of his career (so far) as Fred, delivering a turn of depth-filled introspection and existential angst, never letting the humanity of his character get lost in the shuffle between timelines and the clash between the fantastical and the real.

Great too are the always dependable Emory Cohen and Maika Monroe as the scuzzy elements of an impressionable young life, Monroe especially good as the mystery girl of dreams and nightmares who lures Fred, and indeed us, down a rabbit hole worth exploring again and again.

Much like The Conspiracy before it, MacBride has made another sure to be cult classic that will and must be rewatched several times, a story that is thrilling, scary, exhilarating, and filled with emotional aplomb. Much like life itself.