A New Netflix Movie Time Travels Back To 2003 & It Looks All Wrong

Netflix’s Time Cut is a horror slasher, a teen comedy and a science-fiction time-traveling film all rolled into one. The story follows two sisters working to figure out an unsolved murder case from the early 2000s.

After a clip from the film started to make the rounds on X, depicting the main character entering her high school in 2003, people had thoughts about the vibes. Some appreciated the song choice (the classic and niche “So Yesterday” by Hilary Duff), while others just weren’t buying the depiction of a high school hallway in 2003. And I have to say, I agree!

I was a freshman in high school in 2003, and while yes, I was definitely listening to Hilary Duff (I literally went to see her during her Metamorphosis tour with my girlfriends), I wasn’t popping my collar or riding on my Heelys in the hallway. The entire scene felt like a caricature.

The girls’ hair was too shiny. Their makeup was way too natural-looking (our face shade did not match our neck!). The color scheme isn’t bright enough. There is just something off!

Several X users reacted to the clip, agreeing with this sentiment.

“I don’t know how to explain it but this feels like what a 10 year thinks 2003 was like and not actually what it was like. There’s something unauthentic about it. There’s something missing,” one user wrote.

“this is not 2003 this is a shein ad,” another quipped.

“heelies is more of a thing now than then. Ugg boots was later too. nobody used a cd player like a phone. nobody was calling anyone at school. texting, yes, calling, no. more likely to find someone playing games on their TI calculator than using an iPod,” another wrote.

“This is not the 2003 we lived,” someone said simply.

“Facial flaws / awkwardness ; everyone had semi-bad hair makeup and skin,” one noted.

Another echoed, “The makeup. We were never so polished. It was bad, like foundation 3 shades darker than our skintone.”

Another wrote, “It’s too put together also kids would not be using their cell phones & other electronics like that if they even had them”

One X user commented, “this doesn’t look like 2003, idk how to explain it, but this looks like 2024 pretending to be 2003”

This is such a spot-on take. Remember when we used to have themed weeks in school and we’d all dress up in 70s or 80s looks or what we thought was a 70s or 80s look? (See picture above!). It looks like a bunch of Gen Apha/Gen Z kids dressed up for an early ‘00s theme day at school!

“It’s kinda like when they would make an 80s movie and everyone wore neon and tutus. It’s not 100% accurate, but we just accept it. Lol,” another wrote.

What’s so interesting about this major criticism from the film is that the director of Time Cut, Hannah Macpherson, grew up during this time as well.

When asked by CBR about the main thing she wanted to achieve in making the movie feel like it’s truly in 2003, without making it a cliché, she said her major help was being a teen during that same time.

“I think it helped that I lived in the early 2000s, and was a young person trying to figure out who I was. I remember them quite well, and it was so fun to get to revisit the music, the fashion and even the electronics. There was the authenticity of the fact that I knew the 2000s,” she said.

“We had great department heads who did a bunch of research. We actually really cracked ourselves up, looking back at how many things have changed in 20 years.”

While I appreciate that there was research done for the scene…did they consult anyone who was actually in high school in 2003? It almost seems as if they took everything from 2000 – 2007ish and mushed it into one scene! I, for one, was not wearing preppy polos and pink skirts with my flip phone. I was an emo kid wearing Hot Topic graphic tees and skater shoes.

Lastly, (and I am not a film buff in any way so please take this with a gran of salt), but I think what most of us are so put off by is the quality of the camera. We can’t see that version of 2003 in a school because it’s just way too crisp and clean. We need grain. We need blurriness. We need it to be a little less polished!

If you want to take a look for yourself, Time Cut is steaming now on Netflix.