Aspiring artist but creatively blocked Finn is the superintendent of an LA bungalow-style apartment complex. His sleazy roommate, Jasper plays the horses and has dreams of unlimited wealth and power. Finn’s girlfriend, Callie, is an aspiring writer who also shares the rent. When it is suspected that the elderly man living across the complex from them has died, the trio investigates. Inside his apartment they discover a room festooned with pictures of their apartment front window. A large machine is bolted to the floor and they soon ascertain that the apparatus is a giant camera that takes daily pictures of their apartment. After examining the pictures they determine that the camera takes one Polaroid picture every night at 8pm providing a 24 hour glimpse of the future.
The group soon figures out they can receive messages from their future selves. Initially this works out well as they quickly exploit the situation. Future Jasper holds up the results of the daily horse races making them rich and Finn is able to see the paintings that his future self paints which unlocks his creativity block. However when the photographs begin to portray more sinister images they attempt to recreate the images (e.g. Jasper and Callie making out) out of a fear that any deviation will mean death (“Don’t fuck with time”) given the fate of the original camera’s owner. The fatalistic question becomes whether they fall in line with the photos’ predictions because it is inevitable, or because they’re using them as an ongoing guide?
I love time travel stories and this one is captivating. Like all time-travel stories I am certain that the internal logic can be picked apart, however if you simply go with the premise of the story you will be intrigued by this well-crafted tale as the situation becomes increasingly complicated and the relationships begin to disintegrate. As is often the case, power, corruption and lies become their undoing. If I had one nitpick it is that the characters are not very likable to begin with so their inevitable fates do not resonate as strongly. Still, you won’t care; you will just want to see what is in the next photograph…
4 comments:
Intrigued!
Sounds very interesting, you've been finding some good ones this year.
Saw the trailer for this in the theater a while back and thought it looked promising. Glad to hear it delivered!
I've never heard of this but my curiosity is piqued. Sounds like the evil napkin dispenser from The Twilight Zone. I'm already thinking of ways how to beat it.
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