The Sticky Fingers of Time

Time has five fingers One is for the past One is for the present And three is the future And four is for what could have been And five for yet could be

Writer Tucker (Terumi Matthews) in Alice in Wonderland style unwittingly follows her mysterious beau from 1953 to 1997 and is involved in an attempt to change the past.

We are introduced to several story threads and personalities. As we try to keep up with this non-linear story. Can the past and future be changed or does what we do Stick?

The film has that independent sight, sound, and feel; Shot on special color and black and white film. The use of "super 16" film and the second unit using 8 mm gives this film an otherworldly look. They manage not to shake it as in Blair Witch.

One thing I like in the book that they created "The sticky fingers of time" It plays a part in keeping the continuity of the story and right up to the last has significance.

I came across this title when searching the extensive collections of sci-fi time travel films. I dare say that I was not initially impressed with the things I found, but the actual blurb won me over. I found this on DVD for £4.99 retail which was a bargain.

The film begins with what can be described as "sesame street Colouring". The camera was obviously low budget, so the colours all appear murky and bleed into each other. This would have been where I would have stopped watching which would have been a real mistake.

The premise of the film quickly takes hold, and you learn about the characters in a very alternative fashion. The film is separated into sections that have very little connectivity until the storyline takes hold. This is where the film comes into its own.

The film is part colour part black and white, giving the indication of which time period you are in. This is a really simple way of doing this but it is so effective. The slices of the film really come into place at the end and you realise what a masterpiece of direction this actually is. This really would have been excellent with a big screen budget if that could have been done without dumbing down the plot (probably not with the state of films today).

Give this film a chance, it is so cheap to buy, just slightly more than renting Navy Seals which would be a waste of good money. If you give the first 20 minutes a chance you should enjoy it. (don't get drunk before, you might miss out on the plot).

7/10 (10/10 storyline, 9/10 entertainment value, 5/10 production value). TWELVE MONKEYS WITHOUT THE MONEY BUT MORE PLOT.

This movie was absolutely superb. My friends and I saw it two nights in a row; I'd gladly see it again, but it was only in my area for a weekend. If Hilary Brougher can make this movie with $250,000, I can't wait to see what she'll make with more. The story is beautifully crafted, suspenseful, and totally original. The actors were excellent, especially the ones who played Isaac, Tucker and Drew. There were some understatedly hilarious lines that perfectly balanced the frightening/bizarre storyline, and everything came together beautifully--and unexpectedly--at the end. This is the kind of movie I want to make! As the local arthouse theater that showed this put it, "Although we're not positive, we're heralding this film as a first of its genre: a pre- and post-apocalyptic time-travel/atomic-bomb-mutation/lesbian chic/suspense dramedy." Whatever you call it, it's great.

I saw this film two or three years ago at one of the San Francisco film festivals. I loved it. I told everyone about it, and have had to wait this long time before I found it on DVD.

It is expertly written and directed, a phenomenal film. It cloaks any budget constraints in a black-n white film noir look and feel, very convincing, all time periods feel authentic (good costume work - also good set designs). The time travel elements are well told, especially for such a complex underlying concept. There's nothing condescending or overbearing the way you found in Matrix (no endless monologues explaining everything). Rather, it's concise in it's storytelling, told visually and thematically and through action. Really nice, a fun romp through time, very catchy.

All actors were well above what I've come to expect, even - or maybe especially - from Hollywood. No one really let the ball fall. I recommend this to anyone who loves film noir or science fiction - thriller stories.

I can't say enough good things about this movie. Clever, well-acted, well-written, and constructed with an intricacy and a clarity that just blows me away. This movie is just plain solidly good.

Having said that, I'm amused by the critics I've read who make comments re this film to the effect of "Finally, a sci-fi movie directed exclusively at women!" I'm all for sci-fi directed at women. But let me tell you, as a hetero male sci-fi geek, I have no problem at all settling down to watch a story about time-traveling lesbians. Are you kidding? What is perhaps a bit more unusual in sci-fi is the portrayal of realistic, three-dimensional female characters, and the very natural, and, I'll say it, feminine way that they deal with the bizarre events that befall them. Particularly in genre movies, faux-feminist "strong women" are often depicted as essentially men in female bodies. The central characters in this film are strong people (well, one of them becomes strong) and it has nothing to do with gender inversion, or reversal, or some sort of overthrow of the male paradigm. Or, if that stuff is in there, it's buried deep enough that I didn't feel beat over the head with it.

The world would be a better place if the marketing machine was put to use convincing people to see movies like this instead of, to take some recent examples, Pearl Harbor and Planet of the Apes. The Sticky Fingers of Time made me feel better about being alive. I want the poster. Bravo.