Film Festival Time

One of the best benefits of living in New York is the ability to see independent films. Many of these interesting indies simply can't find a distributor and sometimes can only be seen at special screenings in NYC or LA. I thought I should take advantage of this fact, so last night I went to see Timer at the Tribeca Film Festival. Timer actually premiered last year at TFF, but a year later it still hasn't found a distributor. According to what the director told us in the Q&A after the film (yay for directors showing up to screenings!), they had a few offers but none were what they were looking for.

Timer takes place in a society where once you hit puberty you can get a digital timer implanted on your wrist that will count down the days until you meet your soul mate (and there is a 98% success rate for those couples!). It all sounds great and happy until you realize the complications that could arise. What if your timer remains blank like the protagonists- does that mean you don't have a soul mate? What if your timer says the soul mate is 50 years away? What are you supposed to do about relationships in the meantime? What if your match dies? What if you are matched with someone too young, or too old, or you don't like them? The movie seems to say that you can't force things like love, and you can't live your life waiting for something to happen to you.

I really liked this film. I thought it was well written and well acted. I mean, it had Anya from Buffy in it, so how could I not?

Timer also had some very non-Hollywood relationships that were great. Una, the main protagonist, lives with her stepsister Steph. When the timer and men threaten to come between them, Una tells Steph that their relationship is the most important in her life and she will not let anything come between them. It is so refreshing to see this non-romantic and non-familial bond between two women be so reinforced. The ending was bittersweet but authentic and made me respect the writing even more. Plus, it is very much a romantic comedy and made me laugh out loud several times. Honestly one of the best films I have seen in a long, long time. The DVD comes out in June or July and I hope people go rent it.