(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters. If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment. If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“The hapless heroine Agnes is reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man.”
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out where I’d heard the name Alice Lowe before.
Oh, it isn’t as if I’ve seen here in a ton of things. Frankly, I don’t watch a good deal of British television or movies – not because I don’t like them but because I’m on the U.S. side of the pond wherein I don’t have a great deal of access to them. Still, I watched Timestalker (2024) – a solid, funny, and surprisingly thought-provoking (in small ways) yarn about mismatched lovers meeting, dying, then meeting again across multiple reincarnations – and I just couldn’t quite put my finger on the familiarity of Lowe’s features. I knew I’d watched her in something that I absolutely loved, but it escaped me.
Now, in fairness, that could be owed in part to the fact that the talented and much decorated actress reinvents herself in several roles across the flick’s 90-minute running time. She starts out as some emotionally distance French noble from a few millennia back; and across several costume changes she brings herself – with slightly different make-up, hair, and (obviously) outfits corresponding to the wackiest designs of these various eras – from the past, to the present, and into the not-too-distant future. But those eyes? That feminine jawline? That ‘aren’t I important’ speaking tone? I knew it, but I couldn’t place where.
Well, thank goodness for a resource like IMDB.com because they figured it out for me: Lowe played the irrepressible ‘Dr. Liz Asher’ – in one of her very first roles – aboard the hilariously funny Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a BBC sitcom mocking overwrought medical procedurals – with a healthy helping of Horror – back in 2004. If you haven’t seen it, then stop what you’re doing right now and correct that oversight. She’s absolutely delightful in it – along with the entire ensemble – and it’s arguably one of the craziest things ever done for broadcast television. And while I have seen her in other projects, I really don’t think I’ve had the chance to truly see her as front-and-center as she is here in a film that she starred, wrote, and directed. Hats off to a talented gal!
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“The hapless heroine Agnes is reincarnated every time she makes the same mistake: falling in love with the wrong man.”
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out where I’d heard the name Alice Lowe before.
Oh, it isn’t as if I’ve seen here in a ton of things. Frankly, I don’t watch a good deal of British television or movies – not because I don’t like them but because I’m on the U.S. side of the pond wherein I don’t have a great deal of access to them. Still, I watched Timestalker (2024) – a solid, funny, and surprisingly thought-provoking (in small ways) yarn about mismatched lovers meeting, dying, then meeting again across multiple reincarnations – and I just couldn’t quite put my finger on the familiarity of Lowe’s features. I knew I’d watched her in something that I absolutely loved, but it escaped me.
Now, in fairness, that could be owed in part to the fact that the talented and much decorated actress reinvents herself in several roles across the flick’s 90-minute running time. She starts out as some emotionally distance French noble from a few millennia back; and across several costume changes she brings herself – with slightly different make-up, hair, and (obviously) outfits corresponding to the wackiest designs of these various eras – from the past, to the present, and into the not-too-distant future. But those eyes? That feminine jawline? That ‘aren’t I important’ speaking tone? I knew it, but I couldn’t place where.
Well, thank goodness for a resource like IMDB.com because they figured it out for me: Lowe played the irrepressible ‘Dr. Liz Asher’ – in one of her very first roles – aboard the hilariously funny Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a BBC sitcom mocking overwrought medical procedurals – with a healthy helping of Horror – back in 2004. If you haven’t seen it, then stop what you’re doing right now and correct that oversight. She’s absolutely delightful in it – along with the entire ensemble – and it’s arguably one of the craziest things ever done for broadcast television. And while I have seen her in other projects, I really don’t think I’ve had the chance to truly see her as front-and-center as she is here in a film that she starred, wrote, and directed. Hats off to a talented gal!
Initially, Timestalker – what with the title alone – billed to me as a Science Fiction-concept Comedy; and I need to set the record straight: there is absolutely very, very, very little about this that’s even remotely SciFi. Truly, the only thing that even tangentially qualifies would be the fact that the picture’s closing sequence takes place in a somewhat Dystopian future where – ahem – street dancers team up to fight ‘the Establishment’ with little more than sticks, stones, clubs, and anything else they can still get their hands on as weapons. Otherwise, Timestalker – which is a Comedy and a pretty good one, at that – is more of Fantasy, one that posits not only does reincarnation exist but also so does a wicked type of existential karma which keeps putting the same souls together – for better or for worse – across the ages.
In other words, imagine that you were – say – Cleopatra, and in your past you were killed by your one true love Mark Antony (instead of committing suicide-by-snake, as they say). Basically, the galaxy’s rules would require that – throughout the ages – you would met up in new forms again and again and again until you resolved whatever empirical angst had originally bound you together in time. This is the fabric around which Timestalker wraps itself – with a bit of a twist I won’t spoil. The clever recipe has the many faces of Lowe (or Agnes, as she’s named) swooning over the many faces of Alex (played by Aneurin Barnard) because she insists they’re ‘destined’ to be when all of the chronological evidence kinda/sorta keeps demonstrating otherwise.
Like a great many of British theatrical comedies do, Timestalker operates on an episodic construct. Principally, this story unfolds across the ages via these little vignettes, wherein the picture’s ensemble of talent keeps crossing paths in ways. Oft times, they’re friends (of a sort), but even though there might be a hint of affection one to another what truly evades resolution is True Love. Lowe’s script matches them up in several different ways – consensual, not so much so, heterosexual, homosexual, etc. – and it’s all of somewhat magical, mystical tapestry that doesn’t so much tug at one’s heartstrings as it reaches for bolder and bolder laughs. While it may not always work, there’s clearly been a good deal of thought put into its various layers – as well as their construction – so much so that I wonder if it might inevitably be the kind of story that needs a bit of time to be appreciated, to perhaps build a cult audience which understands and revels in its fantasy.
Still, come the end of it all, I’m left with the question of what it all means?
In other words, imagine that you were – say – Cleopatra, and in your past you were killed by your one true love Mark Antony (instead of committing suicide-by-snake, as they say). Basically, the galaxy’s rules would require that – throughout the ages – you would met up in new forms again and again and again until you resolved whatever empirical angst had originally bound you together in time. This is the fabric around which Timestalker wraps itself – with a bit of a twist I won’t spoil. The clever recipe has the many faces of Lowe (or Agnes, as she’s named) swooning over the many faces of Alex (played by Aneurin Barnard) because she insists they’re ‘destined’ to be when all of the chronological evidence kinda/sorta keeps demonstrating otherwise.
Like a great many of British theatrical comedies do, Timestalker operates on an episodic construct. Principally, this story unfolds across the ages via these little vignettes, wherein the picture’s ensemble of talent keeps crossing paths in ways. Oft times, they’re friends (of a sort), but even though there might be a hint of affection one to another what truly evades resolution is True Love. Lowe’s script matches them up in several different ways – consensual, not so much so, heterosexual, homosexual, etc. – and it’s all of somewhat magical, mystical tapestry that doesn’t so much tug at one’s heartstrings as it reaches for bolder and bolder laughs. While it may not always work, there’s clearly been a good deal of thought put into its various layers – as well as their construction – so much so that I wonder if it might inevitably be the kind of story that needs a bit of time to be appreciated, to perhaps build a cult audience which understands and revels in its fantasy.
Still, come the end of it all, I’m left with the question of what it all means?
Don’t misunderstand: I have a habit of overthinking Comedies, which is why I honestly find so few of them funny. But the concept here – the idea of wrongs being righted and rights being wronged across reincarnated denizens – had me wondering if there was some central message worth plucking from the wisdom. Are we all inconceivably welded together in the vastness of the cosmos in such a way that we’re sentenced to meet the same faces, cross the same bridges, make the same mistakes until we somehow make sense of it all? Is it only through the achievement of such wisdom that we finally are rewarded with transcendence and allowed to crossover out of this forever winding road into the truest Beyond there is? If you’re anything like me, then Lowe will have you questioning your existence … and she might even be warning you not to take any of what truly ails you all that seriously. Eventually, you’ll fix it … so why lose sleep over it today?
Timestalker (2024) was produced by Western Edge Pictures, British Film Institute (BFI), Ffilm Cymru Wales, Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology, and Popcorn Group. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Level 33 Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I still found the provided sights and sounds to be pretty damn exceptional from start-to-finish. There’s a bit of in-camera trickery here and there, but it all looks very good. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Well, sadly, there isn’t a single one … and that’s a big miss. Disappointed that there isn’t even an interview as it would’ve been grand to hear something from Lowe, at least.
Recommended.
While I enjoyed Timestalker (2024) quite a bit, I can’t ignore the fact that its highly episodic narrative feels more like something that originated as part of some idea for a comedy skit/sketch show but was held back because someone – probably writer/director Lowe – felt it deserved theatrical treatment. Meh. Of course, it’s clever to see this wandering, lost souls colliding with one another throughout the ages; but that can’t escape that fact that at Lowe’s design it all leads to little more than a somewhat predictable punchline, one that underscores the futility of really doing anything to fundamentally reshape one’s destiny. We’re all cursed, after all, so why bother?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Level 33 Entertainment (via Allied Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary DVD of Timestalker (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
Timestalker (2024) was produced by Western Edge Pictures, British Film Institute (BFI), Ffilm Cymru Wales, Head Gear Films, Metrol Technology, and Popcorn Group. DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Level 33 Entertainment. As for the technical specifications? While I’m no trained video expert, I still found the provided sights and sounds to be pretty damn exceptional from start-to-finish. There’s a bit of in-camera trickery here and there, but it all looks very good. Lastly, if you’re looking for special features? Well, sadly, there isn’t a single one … and that’s a big miss. Disappointed that there isn’t even an interview as it would’ve been grand to hear something from Lowe, at least.
Recommended.
While I enjoyed Timestalker (2024) quite a bit, I can’t ignore the fact that its highly episodic narrative feels more like something that originated as part of some idea for a comedy skit/sketch show but was held back because someone – probably writer/director Lowe – felt it deserved theatrical treatment. Meh. Of course, it’s clever to see this wandering, lost souls colliding with one another throughout the ages; but that can’t escape that fact that at Lowe’s design it all leads to little more than a somewhat predictable punchline, one that underscores the futility of really doing anything to fundamentally reshape one’s destiny. We’re all cursed, after all, so why bother?
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Level 33 Entertainment (via Allied Vaughn) provided me with a complimentary DVD of Timestalker (2024) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review. Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.
-- EZ
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