3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Relax, I'm From the Future

2023, Luke Higginson (feature debut) -- download

Based on his 2013, Higginson does a very very indie Canadian flick with much the same tone and feel as He Never Died. OK, maybe not tone, as that one was darkly comedic, and this one is just.... comedic.

Casper (Rhys Darby, The X-Files) arrives from the future, Terminator style (bubble of energy), not naked but in a bright, colourful all encompassing suit which he tears his way out of. Homeless and hungry, he is befriended by counter-culture Holly (Gabrielle Graham, Possessor) who takes him to a punk show and feeds him. He bemoans how great the band is, but this is their last great show. Holly takes everything he says in stride, his claims to be from the future, she doesn't argue, until he gives her some proof -- winning sports game scores.

He's from the future and is here to stop something terrible from happening, like all good time travellers, and he is armed with sports & lottery information to fund his plan. Holly steps in to help and soon they are swimming in wealth and, as long as she stays under the radar, he will continue to fund her comfortable life.

For Casper, time is not linear, there is no butterfly he has to worry about stepping on, but there are key events that have to happen. One such is the pre-mature death of a cartoonist Percy (Julian Richings, Orphan Black), more a doodler than anything, who has great significance in the future. Unfortunately Casper interrupts the guy's suicide. He then spends the rest of the movie trying to convince the guy to kill himself, resorting even to violent means. This act unravels all of Casper's plans.

Meanwhile, another time traveller, Doris (Janine Theriault, Being Human), who has also set up a comfortable life for herself, is killing all other time travellers she encounters. She has been stationed here to deal with anyone who wants to come back and stop the cataclysmic events of the early 21st century, that while kill billions, pave the way for the utopia in the future. Despite Casper not having any desire to do that -- his plan was actually to just hang out and have fun; in the future, he was bored with life, despite that unimpressive plan, Casper has to kill Doris to defend Holly.

MEANWHILE another version of Casper shows up. This is Casper coming back again to deal with the fucked up situation he caused. From there, it just gets weirder.

Its not a great movie, often losing momentum in attempting to create a complex  time travel story, but the performances are great and it is so very very much Canadian indie. Darby is surprisingly reined in but his signature wackiness does make Casper a believable odd duck from the future.

An interesting tangent thought is that I work for a lottery company. I am pretty sure our investigations team would have started noticing all the Big Wins that Holly makes and she would have been on her radar.