A pair of vintage shop proprietors use a time machine to help their business, leading to hilarious consequences in the British mockumentary Time Travel is Dangerous!, directed by Chris Reading.
Ruth and Megan are best friends who spend their days running a vintage shop. When they find a time machine in a junk pile, they begin to use it to gather goods for their shop for cheap, but they also find out the title: Time Travel is Dangerous! The British mockumentary, directed by Chris Reading and written by Reading with Anna-Elizabeth & Hillary Shakespeare, is a blast, using that concept and building into a fun take on science fiction with a lovable bunch of idiot weirdos as the scope expands to more weird science and the possible end of the universe! All to save a few bucks at the shop.
The mockumentary style serves the film well, setting its tone and allowing the story to float around as needed, filling in details, and keeping it moving at a jaunty pace. Great humor is mined in the cutaways, allowing asides to comment on what’s happening, show a different point of view, or highlight great jokes. The method is akin to Parks and Recreation, where the cameras are in places where they never could be and are never seen; it’s all for style.
There’s a matter-of-factness to its whimsy, as one might expect with a pitch-perfect narration by Stephen Fry. Megan and Ruth (Megan Sevenson & Ruth Syratt with amazing chemistry. They should, they truly run a vintage shop together), treat it like to big deal to find a time machine, made out of a bumper car with extra gadgets (“You made a time machine… out of a bumper car?” to paraphrase Marty McFly, an easy reach as the design is purposely similar to the Delorean of Back to the Future). It’s perfectly logical to use the machine to jaunt back in time to get goods for their shop, of course. Why would it be an issue for these idiots to loot a dead cowboy while deadpan riffing on his goods?
That concept, and the issues that come from banying about time willy-nilly, oblivious to the effects, is more than enough to draw a full film from. But the Shakespeares and Reading expand the scope, running into a variety of ideas and “what ifs” as the implications of the misuse of the machine begin to take effect.
Megan and Ruth’s schenanigans gain the attention of the group of loveable weirdos. The group is a joy, filled with eccentrics with their own strange inventions. The low-key nature is highlighted by this group. Their inventions are astounding and strange, straight out of the annals of science fiction, but they are so blasé, like members of a gardening club showing off a favorite plant growing well. The interplay of the team shows strong character writing with the bandying about of ideas, character clashes, and getting bogged down in their ruts.
Included in the group is the creator of the time machine, who also left behind a pile of VHS tapes as instructions and tapes from a public access show he hosted around these inventions. I’m a sucker for well-designed lo-fi throwbacks, and this hit me right.
There’s a hilarious irrelevance to the whole affair. The grounded, no big deal, “yes, we’re accidentally opening a hole to hell. That’s against the rules, so let’s just deal with it and move on,” lends a special level of humor. It’s a lot of ideas working in many directions. It might be too much for many, seeing a cynical aim, a falseness to the lo-fi. In some ways, it is a little forced, designed to grasp a whimsy at points (a handful of shots look lifted from Wes Anderson). But it’s fun and funny, and the moments where it didn’t feel genuine are small, often needed to create a plot point or smooth storytelling. It helps to have a very game cast to sell the ideas and present them in the pitch-perfect “just flat enough” tone.
There are a lot of big ideas, even if treated as mundane. Well-written characters performed with the just-right pitch of banality sell the concept. These are strange folks, out of sorts with society, but they are written with a love of the absurd, not a punching down. There are many great gags just built on how people talk and treat eachother, including running gags of a focus on middle management and the rules of the club; an idea brought to a hilarious head in a game in hell, aka “The Unknown,” designed a wonderful fever dream of Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton (featuring a voice cameo by Brian Blessed!).
Time Travel is Dangerous is a charming, low-key mockumentary that will appeal to those who love irreverent takes on big topics. It’s hilarious with strong performances, perfect timing, and multitudes of great gags.
Time Travel is Dangerous is presented through the Seattle International Film Festival, running in-person screenings May 15th – 25th and selected online screenings March 26th – June 1st. See Siff.net/festival for more.