Time is a Funny Thing...

Time is a funny thing, especially when it comes to movies. I can remember watching Top Gun over and over again as a kid and always siding with Tom Cruise’s character. As I’ve gotten older, I started to see things from Val Kilmer’s character’s perspective. I would start to hear myself say, “Iceman is right! Maverick is being totally irresponsible!!!” That’s one reason I’ve been re-watching movies during the pandemic. Speaking of Tom Cruise and time, if you want to see a sci-fi action version of Groundhog Day, check out Edge of Tomorrow also commonly referred to as Live, Die, Repeat for reasons that will become clear when you watch the movie.

Time Travel

Let’s start with the obvious way movies are the perfect medium for time. If you’ve seen Interstellar, Looper, or Tenet, then I highly recommend a lesser-known film called Primer. Primer explores some of the more complex issues with time travel and will give its audience plenty to talk about afterward. If you want to bring a little romance into your time travel movies and you’ve already seen The Time Traveler’s Wife, then definitely check out About Time. They both star Rachel McAdams and I absolutely fell in love with the entire cast in About Time, especially everyone in Tim Lake’s (Domhnall Gleeson) family.

Time in a Dystopian Society

If you like the Hunger Games series or the Divergent series, then I highly recommend In Time. Like Hunger Games and Divergent, In Time reexamines issues of wealth inequality by putting a new spin on the phrase “old money”. Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) and Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried), who are on opposite sides of a unique wealth gap, work together to tear down the system of inequality. I particularly enjoyed the movie’s not-so-subtle dig at the 1% and a plethora of time puns. Also if you are into the whole wrist implant scene, after you watch In Time, then don’t pass up TiMER or Black Mirror’s episode “Hang the DJ.” Both play on the concept of meeting “the one” through a trusted new form of tech.

Doing Time

If you are like me and have seen Shawshank Redemption over 100 times (thank you, cable networks) and STILL like it, then don’t pass up an opportunity to watch The Count of Monte Cristo. Based off of the adventure novel written by French author Alexandre Dumas, this movie has it all. The cinematography is beautiful. Edmond (Jim Caviezel) is wrongfully thrown into a desolate, island prison where he meets Old Man Dantes (Barry Cassin) and their interaction completely changes the course of Edmond’s life. Plus Fernand (Guy Pearce) is the ultimate antagonist. If that weren’t enough, you also get to watch Superman himself, Henry Cavill, in one of his first Hollywood performances.

Time Forgotten

Speaking of Guy Pearce, have you seen Memento? This movie probably has one of the most unique ways of portraying time through color. It tells the story of a man in search of his wife’s killers while he also experiences anterograde amnesia. If you’ve already seen Memento, then you should also check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Keep a close eye on Kate Winslet’s hair color throughout the film.

Superheroes and Time

If you are a Marvel fan and you enjoyed movies that include the time stone such as Doctor Strange, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: End Game, check out Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Even though the time stone does not make an appearance, you still get to enjoy all the crazy possibilities of time manipulation in this film. As you might have guessed, it plays on the theory of many universes existing on the same timeline but the characters are able to interact with one another. The animation is vibrant and the characters are well-developed. Be prepared to go on a fascinating ride.

The Supernatural and Time

If you are into movies about celestial or demonic beings, Meet Joe Black and Fallen (1998) have to be two of my all time favorites. In Meet Joe Black, the grim reaper/death makes a deal with a wealthy old man (played by Anthony Hopkins), death says, “Be my guide and in return you get time...minutes, days, weeks.” In Fallen (1998), time is not on Denzel Washington’s side (that’s a joke for people who have already seen it). A detective must find a way to stop the fallen angel, Azazel, from continuing a killing spree by turning innocent people into murderers.

Youth and Time

If you like Superbad and Booksmart, two movies about nerds who are running out of time to party in high school, then add Dope to the list. In Dope, a straight-A student and a self-declared 90s hip hop geek from a rundown neighborhood must find a creative way to get noticed by colleges. He runs into some trouble with a local gang and uses his critical thinking skills to get out of it with the help of his punk band friends.

The Passage of Time

If you like The Notebook, a love story that follows people separated by war and status or Fried Green Tomatoes, a story about several strong women over the course of a couple of generations, then I highly recommend The Joy Luck Club, based on the best-selling novel by Amy Tan. The Joy Luck Club is powerful, in a word, because it follows the trials and tribulations of being an Asian woman from the time period of the 1920s to the 1980s in both China and the United States. Through war and misogyny, these strong women conquer it all through the passage of time with one key driver: hope.

So, time is a funny thing in movies. It can change a character. It can give a character a second chance. It can force a character’s hand. It can even help the audience see perspectives they might otherwise never have the chance to see. All that being said, movies are a unique medium for playing with our expectations and conception of time, showing us the nuances that make the world so interesting. Keep watching and pay close attention to how time is portrayed in the next film you watch.