Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is a sci-fi / time travel / time loop / time paradox Japanese comedy. There’s plenty of sci-fi time related films out there and some do things differently and some walk familiar paths. But this film is a real creative twist on the genre. One I’ve maybe seen hints of in other films that really play with past and future events but never dropped center stage with such confidence and such low-stakes vibes and exuberance.

Without going into huge detail, the film is about a tv that shows the watcher two minutes into the future. And another tv (in another room) that shows two minutes in the past. The main character finds himself talking to a version of himself in the future and then goes to the other tv and has the same conversation with his past self. Things then get more intricate, more complicated, more paradox-threateningly clever.

The film is made to look like it was done in one take… but you can sometimes spot the cuts. Which is fair enough because this movie’s temporal logic and production of the tv screens in the past and future are complicated enough, I can’t imagine doing it all in a single take using (presumably) pre-recorded sequences. It’s quite nifty and very funny watching these characters baffled realization of what’s going and… and how to profit from it.

There’s also a really good natured chill vibe about the film. Everyone is so thrilled and excited about what they’ve discovered… but they kind of go along with it in a cool, clever way. I kind of grooved along too, only ever really stopping to ask where they got such incredibly long extension cords on the tvs. The world may never know.

I grinned and laughed in real appreciation at where the film goes. It’s very clever and, if it spends too much time trying to explain its logic, that can be forgiven because it eventually goes to places that hurt my brain. I really dug this low-fi indie flick.

Score: 86