The best discovery at SXSW this year is the independent Australian film about time travel and true love. With a cast of exactly three, this melds the best of indie filmmaking and the tropes of the time travel genre. Screenwriter and director Hugh Sullivan successfully makes us laugh, cry, and worry about the temporal fates of his characters.
Our story follows Dean (Josh McConville) as he plans a romantic weekend with his girlfriend Lana (Hannah Marshall). On the one-year anniversary of a weekend together at a beach-adjacent motel, they return to the same place only to find it abandoned. Dean’s best-laid plans continue to fall to pieces, especially after Lana’s ex (Alex Dimitriades) shows up and tries to steal her away.
With his weekend ruined, he constructs a time machine (like you do) to go back and make things right. Unfortunately, his actions end up creating a possible temporal loop, one which he must find a way to escape from.
The script here is brilliant. It’s funny, it’s sweet, and it ties up all the loose ends that are often created in time travel films. There’s also enormous subtext in here. While it can just be enjoyed on its base levels, there are also numerous references to Greek tragedy and myth, helping to elevate the ideas of Dean’s hubris and need to control things as the cause for his troubles as well as the inescapability of our own individual fates. There are also numerous instances of Dean merely talking to himself (or his future/past selves) and the revelation of just how futile it is to live in the past, which is what this film is really all about.
As great as the script is, the acting and direction are even better. Dean’s time travels end up creating several “versions” of himself, each of whom has a slightly different personality. Each of these is unique, even when played by the same actor in the same clothes.
The real scene stealer, though, is Alex Dimitriades. He has the least screen time but owns every minute of it. He’s the purest, simplest character, but he’s incredibly fun to watch as Terry, the Olympic javelin-throwing ex-boyfriend cockblocker-in-chief. As much as we want to hate him, we can’t help but admire his purity. And in many ways, his intentions and outlook are the most logical. In other ways, they’re beyond patently ridiculous.
Time travel is always a difficult subject to handle. The audience always wants to pick apart plot holes and the internal logic. So few films manage to successfully tie things up, but “The Infinite Man” does.
This isn’t necessarily a film for everyone. It’s a low-budget indie film that, while ostensibly a comedy, doesn’t tell a lot of jokes. Don’t expect a lot of flash or special effects. What you see in the trailer is pretty much what you get.
If you like this aesthetic, though, this film is near perfect, making it my favorite find of the SXSW film festival this year.
9 out of 10