Film Review: REDUX REDUX: A Hugely Ambitious Effort Undermined Just a Bit by its Low Budget [SXSW 2025]
Redux Redux Review
Redux Redux (2025) Film Review from the 32nd Annual South by South West Film Festival, a movie directed by Kevin McManus and Matthew McManus and starring Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus, Jim Cummings, Jeremy Holm, Raphael Chestang, Derick Alexander, Debra Christofferson, Minita Gandhi, London Garcia, Michael Manuel, Taylor Misiak, Remy Ortiz, Dan Perrault, Tamika Simpkins, Dendrie Taylor, Grace Van Dien and Juan Franciso Villa.
It’s not just another time loop movie. Redux Redux, directed by film-making geniuses Kevin and Matthew McManus, has something deep to say about vengeance and the human condition. The McManus directing duo is officially on the map with this compelling and dark new drama about a woman named Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) who keeps repeating her efforts to finalize the life of the man who took her daughter away from her. Despite some low budget restraints in the film-making procedures, Redux Redux captivates the viewer throughout as Irene befriends a female runaway teen (Stella Marcus, reminding one of a young Mila Kunis) who discovers the secrets of Irene’s plan to consistently thwart the idea of her daughter’s murderer living in any single multiverse.
As the film begins, we see Irene by a man on fire. Some of the action throughout the picture sets itself in a diner where Irene looks for the guy responsible for her daughter’s murder. This killer is played by Jeremy Holm. Jim Cummings serves as another man that Irene knows rather well from her previous trips around the multiverse. Irene tries to get his attention at least a couple of times throughout the picture so she can prove to him that there is another universe or two she’s been traveling through where events seem to overlap but not totally cross each other out.
To call Redux Redux the Groundhog Day of thriller movies would be a complete understatement. This is more like Groundhog Day meets The Terminator if Michaela McManus’s character was, indeed, a terminator. In this movie, for all intents and purposes, Irene is the human version of the terminator but, also, she takes on the friendship of the aforementioned runaway as Irene puts her trust in the new girl she has befriended even though Marcus’s character may not be able to fully assist Irene in her quest to achieve vengeance in what is certainly not a fair and proper world. These worlds that Irene travels through are anything but just and both characters learn from their interactions with each other that the world is a hard place, a message which is conveyed by a female truck driver who picks Marcus’s character up when she hitchhikes for a ride.
As the runaway teen tries to get her hands on a gun, the plot twists mount as she discovers that Irene is traveling through multiverses thanks to a machine that looks like it could have been more intriguing with a bigger budget. Still, this travel device becomes a prominent plot point as both Irene and the runaway girl use it together which will forever alter the young girl’s life and strengthen the bond between she and Irene. There are scenes of truly unique happenings that take place throughout the movie and they are enhanced by the directing McManuses’s excellent use of creepy music that is amplified in key scenes to exemplify the meaning of the action taking place on-screen.
Michaela McManus plays her role as a hard ass who is past the point of no return and must deliver vengeance onto the man who forever altered the fabric of her very existence. This performance is perfect and Michaela McManus has some interactions with Stella Marcus that are rather touching and shed light on the fact that Irene is finding in this new runaway girl similarities and differences to her own daughter whose life was unfairly cut short. As the action plays out, one can’t help but root for both of these characters to get to the right time and place to live as it seems they are outlawed in the multiverses that they have participated in illegal activity in.
Redux Redux isn’t always reinventing the wheel but it’s powerfully constructed. Thanks to the performances at the film’s core, we’re able to feel for the main characters and despise the main villain of the piece which is played with bone-chilling intensity by Holm. This picture does meander in certain moments with unnecessary side characters such as workers in the diner the film sets many of its scenes in. Another couple of bad guys (a man and a woman) pop up to try to get money from Irene to buy her way out of her no-win situation. When the movie focuses solely on the bond formed by Michaela McManus and Stella Marcus’s characters, that’s when it’s at its best. Some of the plot twists are a tad banal and threaten to undermine the film as a whole.
Still, Redux Redux is something of a masterful work of emotional complexity for action/thriller fans. There is a fast pace to the action sequences and a lot of strong drama throughout that drives the two main characters’ actions which will ultimately lead them to some kind of personal salvation in a multiverse which may or may not be where they will forever find a piece of happiness. This movie is ultimately about the evil side of the world in which we live and how vengeance can help one cope with the undeniable reality that true evil, in fact, exists and often overshadows the goodness we strive to maintain in the world. Redux Redux will make one think as it entertains with action scenes that simply do not let up.
Rating: 7/10
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