Fighting the Paradox of a Fixed Past and the Question of Destiny

 

    Most time traveling movies center around a personal narrative of predominately white male protagonists, who, in a privileged position, can disrupt reality in order to fulfill their personal wants or needs. This narrative is disrupted in "See You Yesterday" where a young black female protagonist is faced with a dilemma far greater than her personal desires. 

    Narratives that represent the dominate world view are often quite linear, treats the past as a dead, fixed or set destiny that no one can change. This is the exact narrative that CJ is determined to dismantle. After her brother is murdered by police, she uses her genius to travel back to the moments before his death to try and save his life. However she soon finds herself up against forces that have impacts larger than a singular moment of tragedy. 

    She faces the similar frustrations, and mountainous effort of saving her brother from the police that mirrors the cyclical nature of anti-black violence. She is up against the same forces - not having enough time, being in the wrong place - made to relive the trauma of seeing her brother killed. 

    She is also up against an unseen force that seems to "balance the scales" so to speak - a life for a life, she successfully saves her brother only to have her best friend Sebastian killed in his place. 

    This movie brings up a lot of questions. Is the past fixed? What role does destiny play? Can we, and should we change the past? What are the risks and consequences? Can we affect change on something so seemingly out vast and beyond our control? CJ would answer that NO the past is not fixed, destiny be damned, we can and should change the past, and she is certainly willing to risk it all. We are left at the end of the film cheering her on, knowing that if anyone can accomplish the dismantling of dominate and systemic narratives, it will be her.