TAD Film Fest Review: Time Lapse

By Siân Melton

Real talk: time travel hurts my brain. Sometimes I sit and wonder about the logistics of it all. If I travel back in time, is there still a Present Me or did Present Me vanish? If the latter, what happens in present time without me there? And how can I, instead of Chuck Berry, end up responsible for the discovery of rock and roll music? I think that’s why I hesitate before seeing a time travel movie. Sometimes I can enjoy the story and time-travely-ness (very official) and not get too distracted by it and other times I’m all, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA.

That was the case with Time Lapse. I was in WHOA, WHOA, WHOA mode for almost the entire movie, making it difficult to find it believable or even enjoyable for that matter. Time Lapse focuses on three friends who live together: Finn, Jasper, and Callie (Matt O’Leary, George Finn, and Danielle Panabaker, respectively). Finn and Callie are dating but don’t worry because Jasper has his dog race betting to keep him company. Finn is struggling to find the inspiration to paint while balancing the duties of being the apartment complex’s building manager. Callie is, um, doing her thang? And Jasper should probably stop gambling. I mean, not that I know much about gambling but I feel like if you’re taking advice from a crystal ball, maybe you should stop.

And then everything changes when Callie, checking in on a missing neighbor, accidentally stumbles across a time traveling picture-taking machine. There has got to be a better name for it than that, but that is essentially what it is: it is a giant, car-sized machine that spits out a Polaroid, except that Polaroid is OF THE FUTURE. It’s in their neighbor’s living room, which is fine enough, but it’s pointed out the window directly into Finn, Callie, and Jasper’s living room. You know, because it’s always best to test out your Time Jumping Picture Machine (nope, still not right), on unsuspecting neighbors before you do anything else with it.

The gang is immediately torn: on the one hand, you shouldn’t eff with time. But on the other hand, there’s a lot you could do with a picture from tomorrow today. For example, Finn could get inspiration for his paintings by copying his own paintings in the picture; Callie can, uh, do her thang, and Jasper can make millions gambling. HOW CAN ANYTHING GO WRONG?!?!?!?

And here’s where my brain starts to hurt: they decide that they MUST make sure to reenact the picture when it is supposed to happen (the next day) or else something terrible will happen to them. Like time will explode or they’ll shrivel up and die or something. Um, hm. Not buying it. Wouldn’t it just create a new timeline? And what about if they just all decide to never look at the pictures ever again? Take that, Time Polaroid Machine Thing (still not any better).

On top of being confused about time and Polaroids, the friends make weirder and stupider decisions as the days go by. Jasper’s gambling and out-of-nowhere drug addiction makes him paranoid and hit walls a lot. Callie is even acting a little weird (the Polaroid told her she needed to pose for a nude painting, awkardddddd) but hey, Finn is painting again—even if it is just plagiarizing future him. At one point, the Polaroid shows a painting not in his normal style, which alarms everyone. But Finn isn’t worried. “Art is weird, guys,” he assures his friends.

Art is weird. Time Lapse is weird, too. Things get really tense. With lives being threatened and guns and golf clubs (not used for golfing if you know what I mean). Yikes. It could be an interesting look at what happens when a group of friends is pushed to their limits of trust with one another. This never feels fully developed, though. Mostly because of those craaaazzyyyyy decisions they keep making just to make sure the picture comes true. But, an infinite number of things could happen to lead up to the picture, right? So how do they know the path they choose is the right one?!

See, time travel hurts. Damn you, Time Polaroid Machine Thing.

I had a really hard time (ha) getting into Time Lapse. Aside from a handful of interesting shots and the machine admittedly looking and sounding pretty damn cool (along with the eerie green room where it lived), there wasn’t anything overly awesome about the movie. My confusion about the pictures only made it seem to drag on. Mostly I just got angrier and angrier with Finn, Callie, and Jasper for letting a camera rule their lives and determine their destinies, so to speak. Oh, shit, wait. Is that the point? Are our lives already predetermined? Do we have an imaginary “Time Polaroid Machine Thing” ruling our fates? Hm. Nah. The point of this all, really, is that art is weird, duh, and Crabapple the dog might seem like a sure thing but—like John Cusack taught us—nothing really is and you’re going to lose your money if you bet on him.

Time Lapse screened at Toronto After Dark on October 21. It does not currently have a distribution deal.