TIME ADDICTS
Australia, 2023, 92 minutes, Colour.
Freya Tingley, Charles Grounds, Joshua Morton, Elise Jensen.
Directed by Sam Odlum.
Time Addicts is the first feature film, based on one of his short films, by writer-directors, New Zealand-born, Melbourne filmmaker, Sam Odlum. In terms of science fiction, his sides and influence from Philip K.Dick, The Scanner Darkly. In terms of style he references Korean films.
This is a small budget venture, filmed on the streets of the Melbourne suburb, St Albans, but mainly inside a deserted and dilapidated house, dark and sinister atmosphere.
The two central characters are addicts, on the streets, always looking for a fix, being refused by dealers, in debt. And they frequently bicker. At one stage, one character inevitably akss the M-rated question, here in PG terms, “what is going on?”.
They check in with a drug dealer, Kane, who is quite hostile to them, since on a mission to pick up a cache of drugs from the deserted house.
Most of the film takes place in the house, the two discovering some drugs, experimenting – with one of them disappearing. And this begins the time travel. He finds himself in 1995, the house in much better condition, encountering a woman there who invites him to a sexual liaison. On the other hand, the young woman is hesitant, take some drugs, hallucinates and sees her other self.
Ultimately, they are both back in 1995, making some discoveries about the woman there who is pregnant, and the young woman’s realisation that she herself is in the womb, but her companion is her father. Various kinds of questioning and identity crises.
There is further time travel and confusion when the dealer arrives, looking like the 2020s, active in 1995, yet his having been seen as an old man wounded in the dilapidated house. Threats, confrontations.
There is a tantalising development in the time travel at the end, one character going way back to the past and writing a letter for the future, and the young woman and the dealer and the relationship.
Very much a 21st century drama, thriller, for a younger audience rather than an older audience.
- Title, two addicts, travelling through time?
- An Australian film, Melbourne settings, the house in St Albans? Interiors? The musical score?
- The premise, drugs, addiction, consequences, hallucinations, time travel?
- Denise and Johnny, age, background, drugs, hanging out together, dependency, attempts to get drugs from the dealers, other succeeding, their failing, their debts? Going to Kane, his business, appearance, style, threats?
- The mission, willing, reluctant, bickering? Finding the house? The interiors, mystifying? A sense of presence? The old man and the wound? Finding the drugs, questioning, testing?
- Taking the drugs, the effect on Johnny, disappearance, into the past, his leaving messages for Denise, the encounter with Tracy, her aggression, the sexual experience, Denise’s arrival, 1995, Tracey pregnant, the father, Denise in the womb, Tracey later giving birth?
- Tracy, in the house, the drugs, her other self, the confrontations, re-meeting?
- Johnny and the past, the relationship with Tracy, the interactions with Denise, their talking about the 2020s, in the light of the pregnancy and birth?
- Kane, arriving, the threats, violence, his identity, Denise’s son from the future, different ages, the old man? The fighting with Johnny, rivalry, threats, wounds?
- Johnny, his eventual disappearance, into the past, his change of appearance, the desk, writing the letter to Denise, talking about the future from the perspective of the past?
- Kane, at different stages, the relationship with Denise, her decisions, disappearance?
- Older audiences and the reaction to this kind of drug time travel story? Younger audiences?
