Directed by Bradley King, Time Lapse is the story of jealousy, time travel and the degradation of relationships through power and greed.
The story centers on an apartment complex where roommates Callie, Finn and Jasper (played by Danielle Panabaker, Matt O'Leary and George Finn respectively) discover that their neighbor has died. The twist and central conflict that arises from this discovery is that the neighbor was a scientist that invented a camera that is able to take a picture 24 hours into the future – and it's conveniently and frighteningly pointed at their living room.
How will they react to such a life-changing discovery? What possible negatives could come from being able to see the future? These are the conflicts Time Lapse deals with and just how the outcomes ultimately test the loyalty and relationships between our three main characters.
The film examines their motivations for using the camera, the slavery they build for themselves through it, and the ultimately we find that the real villain of the story is simply Time. Time as a weapon, paradoxes as the consequences, who could ask for anything more?
I was so encapsulated by this film that I'm sure I looked ridiculous to my fellow theater patrons. I love time-travel movies simply because they, like all good sci-fi, are just vehicles to examine human drama. What if you could use time to your advantage, say
to make a whole lot of money? Biff did it in Back to the Future II. They did it in Primer. Looper even made use of time travel as a means to an end and JGL even made his weight in gold and silver in the process.
The thing that really stood out for me in this film was the fact that it manages to keep track of its internal logic, which as most of you know is no easy task for a time-travel movie. If you've seen Primer, which this movie reminded me a lot of, I'm pretty sure you need a freaking diagram to keep track of how that all works. In Time Lapse we at least have physical representations in the form of Polaroid pictures that the machine spits out to keep developing the plot and creating the increased paranoia and tension between the roommates.
This film like all the other ones at the festival has that indie film vibe to it, but I can definitely see why it was the Festival Centerpiece at Other World's Austin this year. It's disturbing, suspenseful and exactly what you'd expect from a Hitchcockian sci-fi thriller. The performances are great, the minimalist sci-fi is great, and it's refreshing to have a good time-travel movie since it's been a long wait for a train don't come the past few years (Excluding Looper of course).
Read the full review and others like it on the Drive-in Zeppelin Website
