LOLA

Lola is a arresting indie film that combines the genres of time loop and found footage to create a dual-layered story. The film follows Thom and Mars, two inventors who have created LOLA, a device that can receive radio and TV signals from the future. However, they are unaware of the dire consequences that their actions will have on the world and themselves, as they share these broadcasts with others. Lola is a compelling alternative history drama that explores the impact of our choices and the moral responsibility that comes with them. The film does not rely on flashy effects or gimmicks, but rather on the emotional resonance of the characters and the intriguing plot twists. The film it most reminded me of was Chris Marker's masterpiece, La Jetée. With winning performances and use of found footage, Lola is a film that will make you think and feel, as you witness the ripple effects of time manipulation.

Lola: A cautionary tale about Time Travel; even if it just involved intercepting future Radio and TV broadcasts. Sisters Thomasina (Emma Appleton) and Martha (Stefanie Martini) have always been precocious, fiddling around with valves and electrical components since they were toddlers. Martha is the ideas person/inventor, Thomasina is the engineer who creates the devices. In October 1938 they build Lola, a chronovisor, they view and listen to future TV signals. They first see Bowie playing Space Oddity but go on to view rhe future Grand Nationals and other events to make money from betting. When World War 2 begins they intercept future news to warn people about bombing raids. Eventually tracked down by Military Intelligence they aid the War effort but when you interfere with the future yiu end up with unexpected consequences and no good deed goes unpunished.

The conceit is that is found footage, a film put together by Martha from newsreels, old home films and film shot by Martha on 16 mm stock. It is wonderful in black and white, blurry at times, blacking/whiting out. Changes made to actual 1930s/40s cinenews are seamless and transforms history. Bowie references provide many in jokes and cultural references, as the girls sing and dance in the future music. An Anti-Bowie. Reggie Watson (Shaun Boylan) delivers sinister tunes in a Bowiesque style. The sisters are delightfully eccentric, even keeping a horse indoors, they live in an old crumbling manor house where they basucally raised themselves as "wild childen". Great performances by Appleton and Martini with Rory Fleck Byrne as an Intelligemce officer who falls for Martha and Aaron Monaghan as his manipulative superior. Neil Hannon provides the original soundtrack with Watson's authoritarian songs. Directed and written by Andrew Legge. 8.5/10,

OK not travel but viewing into the future, then making decisions in the present based on future knowledge.

My 7/10 is generous, I know, but that's for what the filmmakers achieved at the budget point and for a compelling idea. Historical future fiction is a weakness of mine, and whilst this isn't Azimov, it manages to get the time travel aspects "right" in-universe. Nothing annoys me more than a film which sets up rules then breaks them.

Another (very different) modest budget British time travel film which gets its timeline "right" which viewers may wish to try is "Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel".

After seeing the trailers online but sadly it didn't come anywhere near where I live. That it received a very limited release is such a shame as this is truly a unique, smart, entertaining and wonderfully made film which kept me glued to the screen - tv screen :(( - so much so, I forgot I was watching a film and was totally and utterly immersed. The performances are outstanding - each and every one. The direction is smart and doesn't waste a frame on filler and the atmosphere is spot on, it feels so much like war time. The special effects are worthy of any blockbuster and the script/story is tight and very clever. I like the way it is shot although I guess some people might not but if you turn it off due to that, you are making a huge mistake. I have a feeling this will achieve cult status and hopefully finds its way onto SKY and the like and then enjoys the audience it so deserves. It would be such a shame if it wasn't widely seen as, for me, it is probably the movie of the year so far and will rightly take a place in my all time favourite list. I will be watching it again very soon.

I am adding to this having read some of the reviews written since I last looked. UI'm afraid I find the negative opinions ridiculous - maybe it's just you have to have imagination, intelligence and a heart to get this movie and not be a mysoginistic halfwit who doesn't understand of you fast forward through a movie, you miss most of it... sigh.

I'll pass on all the comments both positive and negative about this film and address just one sci-fi issue that some reviewers either scoff at or enjoy, receiving future broadcasts.

Off air broadcasting seems to be deemed a thing of the past early television, given cable delivery streaming and the now almost defunct vcr, dvd etc.

But original tv broadcasting went out into the airwaves on a variety of variable a frequency transmissions. Any signal sent out theoretically would enter the atmosphere and conceivably pass into space.

Given travel at the speed required to "catch" those signals in space, any original broadcast from any time sent to air could be received in the future creating the ability to look back in time, not forward.

Mind boggle. Love sci-fi as it becomes reality more and more.