Real indie, ultra-indie, movies are rare. I mean, decent ultra-indie movies are anyway. I make my own “indie” movies of my kids weekly, and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone but future me. You get what I mean though, they are rare. Well, today, I have another time loop movie, that is out of left field, and only cost around $20k to make. There were just a handful of actors, a local coffee shop, and some really amazing editing that makes this thing look like a single take mindjob extraordinaire. The movie is a very light-hearted and whimsical look at time travel chaos, but it might require two viewings to really grasp many of the various temporal gymnastics that they pull off.
The movie is a spry 70 minutes, so you won’t be bored even if the first 20 minutes are just a revolving door of events attempting to learn, and also explain to the audience what it is that these characters have on their hands. Here, check it out for yourself, you
Quick Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes Overview
Basically the concept is simple – a security camera begins showing what is happening two minutes into the future. It’s a deus ex machina – and no attempt at even explaining it – so don’t ask why. Basically the characters of the movie spend their time attempting to exploit the trick to their own advantage. But two minutes really isn’t much to work with, by the time that you say the thing, you have to run to the other camera in order to say the response, or vice versa.
Eventually, the team realizes that if they bring the TVs into the same room, and point them at each other, it will create a Droste effect. And they will be able to step in front of the TV/Cameras at any moment and send messages up time or back in time, depending on the direction that they look. Eventually, they use the cameras to determine which scratch they should make on a lottery ticket, and where they can find some money in an old VCR.
Earlier, when Kato asked Megumi to go to a concert he was performing in, he lied to himself and told himself that she would say yes. But instead, she said no. Later she swings by to give him a symbol and she discovers the Drost TVs pointed at each other and is curious. As she does, she notices that further upstream in time, she is on the screen and is very confused about what is happening here. Eventually, the mob gets involved as they come looking for the cash that was stolen. His paramour is abducted and now Kato has to save her or she is going to die.
Kato takes the TV looking backwards so his friends from the future can see… and as he goes, they catch back up with him in order to hand him numerous items that will narrowly allow him to dodge certain death. After returning to the coffee shop they are greeted by officers from the time travel office and they’ve come to set everything back to rights. But when they give the duo a powder to wipe their memories (including their meeting) they refuse to take it, even though their future selves took it. This in turn causes such a massive time anomaly that it makes the time officers fade away and disappear. As the movie ends, they share coffee as Kato attempts to explain to her how everything came to be and the chaos started. Then in the future, they then turn the TV off, and the movie ends.
Final Thoughts on Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
The movie was apparently shot over the course of seven days at the Kyoto café by the members of the Europe Kikaku Theater Troupe. Seven days and $20k? Yes, the movie is a light 70 minutes, but seemed absolutely perfect for maybe a really light-hearted Black Mirror episode or a Twilight Zone episode. It is really great to see a very jovial, and fun look at temporal chaos for once. Normally everyone dies as the actors are punished for trying to play god. Instead, in Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, we see two individuals meet, and get connected, and choose not to use their new found powers for evil. They take their wins (meeting each other) and leave the Roulette table all the richer for it.
Edited by: CY