The Sticky Fingers of Time

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.

So I watched this on a late night TV broadcast some time ago. Surely it must have also been the right moment in life, or something, but it felt like a revelation. I remember I was grasping onto a feeling that I understood an important thing about life, time, decisions... Now it is all fuzzy. I did rewatched it, in a different context and felt like the major thing about it was... gone. So I guess you either love it, or just wonder what the blip you are looking at. You decide.

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.

Started out fairly interesting, but at about 15 minutes into the film, a case of the low-budgets kicked in and killed the movie. I have nothing against low budgets, mind you, but you must have an interesting story, or characters you can care about in order to get really involved in a film. "El Mariachi" is a good example of what you can do with an ultra-low budget and still make a film that engages the audience.

Woeful acting and editing took me completely out of this film and made me acutely aware that I was watching a low-budget piece of garbage. A silly, nonsensical, "since-it's-science-fiction-I-can-say-whatever-stupid-mumbo-jumbo-I-want-an d-you-have-to-accept-it" story line was the capper on this crapper.

I'd wrestled with a bad print of "The Sticky Fingers of Time" before, but having finally sunk my teeth into the restored version today, that original feeling? It's still there, only amplified. This film has the spirit of 90s DIY filmmaking-audaciously witty and mind-bending, it defies every expectation, proving that ingenuity trumps budget every time. In a dimension where narratives ripple and timelines intertwine, Hilary Brougher's 1997 gem, "The Sticky Fingers of Time," bursts forth from its new restoration. This isn't just a film; it felt like a Lynch's delicious disorientation, Marie-Claude Treilhou's intimate gaze, Hal Hartley's quirky cadence, and FJ Ossang's fearless spirit, all brewed into a potent, sapphic sci-fi elixir. This newly restored gem plunges us into a deliciously disorienting narrative where time itself is a viscous, multi-limbed entity. Forget your typical linear jaunts; here, time has five sticky fingers: past, present, future, what could have been, and what might yet be.

Coming to the plot, it begins in the smoky, black-and-white grit of 1950s NYC, where Tucker Harding, a hard-boiled fiction writer with a cigarette perpetually perched between her toes, is crafting a novel about time's five mischievous digits: past, present, future, what-ifs, and what-may-bes. Unbeknownst to her, a close encounter with an H-bomb test has turned her into a "time freak." One minute she's sipping coffee, the next she's tumbling into the vibrant, color-drenched chaos of 1990s Brooklyn, leaving behind a sticky, luminous residue - the film's deliciously unsettling visual metaphor for time travel. Then enters Drew, a wonderfully messy, possibly suicidal writer, whose life is as tangled. She's just stumbled upon an old paperback of Tucker's "The Sticky Fingers of Death" in a dusty bookstore, only to find a chilling newspaper clipping tucked inside: Tucker, dead on the pavement decades ago. So, naturally, when Tucker herself saunters in, a bewildered specter from the past, things get interesting. Tucker, the accidental "non-linear chick," quickly learns the sticky truth of time travel: it leaves a glistening, almost erotic goo oozing from your eyes. I really liked the arrival of Ofelia, a mesmerizing femme fatale whose secrets unspool like a serpentine tail. My god, how I wanted more glimpses of that tail! Her presence was pure 90s indie cool, a perfect homage to those pulpy thrillers I adore. She just fit.

The real beauty here is how casually brilliant it is, as characters navigate their temporal woes with a relatable, almost mundane charm, the obvious shoestring budget evident but never detracting. And the soundtrack! When the iconic Mill Brothers' "Sixty Seconds Got Together" popped up, it was such a playful, perfectly anachronistic nod. It just worked, adding to the fun and unusual vibe.

Overall, "The Sticky Fingers of Time" is a genuine effort and a must-watch low-budget oddity for those who are interested. Remember, it's a world where time is a pie, and you can eat the slices in any order, but only once.