SEE YOU YESTERDAY REVIEW: Stefon Bristol time-traveling feature…

See You Yesterday is Back to the Future with sharp social commentary…

PHOTO: NETFLIX

Time machines aren’t real, but most people still basically understand their rules: respect the butterfly effect, (important!), don’t meet your past self, (your head might explode), don’t take the Infinity Stones to another universe, (okay, got that!), and if you want to prevent a disaster, prepare for unforeseen consequences.

Say what?

In the upcoming Netflix, release See You Yesterday — directed by Stefon Bristol, co-written by Fredrica Bailey, and produced by Spike Lee — the protagonists actually do create a time machine.

And they’re all too aware of its dangers. But See You Yesterday walks a delicate line between optimism and tragedy. It celebrates marginalized people acquiring the power to subvert a system that’s oppressed them while acknowledging how powerful that system is, and how complicated changing it can be.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

C.J. Walker (Eden Duncan-Smith) and Sebastian Thomas (Dante Crichlow) are best friends living in New York’s East Flatbush neighborhood — and brilliant teenage scientists who invented a pair of working “temporal relocation” backpacks for a science expo. The machines let C.J. and Sebastian travel through a wormhole into the recent past for a few minutes at a time, a feat that should earn them some much-needed money for college, in addition to breaking the known laws of the universe.

Then, C.J.’s older brother Calvin (Brian Vaughn Bradley Jr.) is mistaken for an armed robber and gunned down by police.

C.J. and Sebastian hatch a plan to change Calvin’s fate. But as countless fictional time travelers might attest, that’s a risky, unpredictable goal. The two of them end up scrambling to undo their past work, and in spite of all their clever solutions, they’re eventually faced with some heart-wrenching choices.

As in “Back to the Future,” C.J. must be careful not to change a single aspect of the past lest she provokes a different but equally fateful event.

NEGATIVE POINTS:

Up until two-thirds of the way through the film, the greatest danger CJ faces is her hostile ex-boyfriend, whose threats against her and Sebastian fall flat when her brother Calvin steps in to intercede. But there is an underlying tension that pervades the film that the bullish CJ is frustratingly insensitive to. Hot-headed and reckless, CJ is a fascinatingly unlikable protagonist.

PHOTO: NETFLIX

POP-UP APPEARANCE:

CJ and Sebastian’s high school is so typical of a movie version of school that it almost comes of no shock when Michael J. Fox waltzes in for a cameo as the teacher and mentions the dangers of time travel and says to himself “great Scott” which is referenced by the Doc from back to the future films.

Fox, according to Bristol, fell ill during the summer when the team was supposed to shoot, but they were finally able to make the cameo work the following January. The young stars — including Duncan-Smith, Crichlow, and Johnathan Nieves — were equally ecstatic.

PHOTO: NETFLIX

FINAL THOUGHTS:

See You Yesterday is a Spike Lee-produced time-travel movie, which is of interest by itself and is a stylish, timely film, tackling police shootings of unarmed black men with science fiction tropes.

The film is a powerful debut from Bristol, who proves a promising filmmaker well-deserving of mentor Spike Lee’s support.

At its core, “See You Yesterday” is a story about grief and the inevitable question so many mourners have asked themselves: Could I have done anything to forestall my loved one’s death?

4/5 STARS