Time Freak (2018)

Directed by Andrew Bowler. Starring Asa Butterfield, Skyler Gisondo, Sophie Turner, Will Peltz, Aubrey Reynolds, Jillian Joy, Joseph Park. [PG-13]

Well, “freak” is a little harsh, but Butterfield’s physics genius is selfish, obsessive, a bit creepy, and I think we’re supposed to feel for him on his time-hopping quest to save his relationship with girlfriend Turner. In the movie’s far-fetched and logically-impaired premise, a college student somehow finds the scientific inspiration/knowledge and the finances to build a time machine, which he uses for the very limited and unoriginal purpose of fixing mistakes he thinks he made while dating an aspiring musician (Turner) who’s fated to break up with him…or can fate be changed? Too derivative as a story idea—a ream of forefathers, ranging from About Time to Groundhog Day, get all but plagiarized—and plagued by an unappetizing protagonist, an unfunny (and sometimes plain annoying) stoner best bud (played by Gismondo), and a thinly-drawn object of infatuation, little more than a bundle of clichéd characteristics out of a Cosmo quiz. The movie even lacks the courage of doling out real consequences, and wraps things up so pat it feels like a surrender. Expanded from a same-named 2011 Oscar-nominated short film by writer/director Bowler.

33/100