Rating: NR | Runtime: 83 minutes
Release Date: February 24th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: IFC Films
Director(s): Daniel Antebi
Writer(s): Daniel Antebi

This movie isn’t about addiction to drugs. It’s about our addiction to the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. We define who we are based on these tales.

That’s it right there. Writer/director Daniel Antebi boils God’s Time down to its essence of narcissism, love, insecurity, and ego mixing within the depths of three recovering addicts who’ve shared the same stories over and over again so many times that it wouldn’t be a surprise to notice a slight difference and wonder if it means the world is going to end.

Why? Because the person who catches the discrepancy hopes to be the hero—even if he explains early on that he isn’t. Except, of course, he clarified that rejection with the word “super.” Dev (Ben Groh) wants to be the hero, but on his own terms. In his own story. No spandex. So, you better not ignore his role in this adventure despite realizing it’s never actually been about him.

He steals our attention as narrator by breaking the fourth wall in a way that makes it seem like he’s hijacking the film. It’s an inventive maneuver that keeps us on our toes because we can’t ever truly know where things are going. Maybe Antebi wrote it one way and Dev decides to take it another.

Or maybe Dev’s decisions outside that template force his BFF Luca (Dion Costelloe) and the woman of both their fantasies (Liz Caribel’s Regina) to react in ways that hijack his hijacking. Because what’s the first thing they all do upon discovering new, “secret” information? They make it about themselves. She told him because she knew he’d tell ME, etc. And all the while their worst fears begin to come to life because they refuse to get out of their own way.

Conceived by Antebi, Groh, and Costelloe from their real-life experiences in recovery, the film is ultimately built upon a share that proves too theatrical to ignore (one the director actually heard during a meeting before never seeing the woman who said it again). It’s not enough for Regina to say she’s going to kill her ex-boyfriend, though.

She’s been saying that every single time she speaks, always venting her rage before turning on a dime to say that she won’t. That she’ll pray for him instead, wish him the very best, and let God decide his fate. The reason Dev gets so riled up is because Regina forgets to say that last part. She tells the group she’s going to kill him and “that’s it.” So, in his desire to be the hero, he ropes Luca into a wild race across NYC to stop her, save her, and continue feeding his delusion.

It’s a ton of fun. Groh is the exact type of manic energy you love to witness from afar with Costelloe’s unmoving innocence and desire to not ruffle feathers proving the perfect foil while Caribel steals control in her film debut via a take-no-prisoners attitude and identity. Add “That Guy” (Jared Abrahamson) either chasing Dev or proving to be a figment of his imagination, coke fiend bosses, confused parents, and addicts in no mood to deal with Dev’s antics and the ride to the film’s gun-toting climax will definitely never bore you.

Don’t think it’s just some superficial lark either, though, since these guys know this life and know the traps these characters inevitably lay for themselves. All it takes is one vantage point shift to expose how looks are often deceiving once the façade we’ve created for ourselves shatters to the ground.

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Ben Groh as “Dev”, Dion Costelloe as “Luca” in Daniel Antebi’s GOD’S TIME. Courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films Release.