Time Lapse

Finn, a painter, his girlfriend Callie and their friend Jasper get into the flat of the elderly tenant in their building and find a machine. Every day at the same hour it produces a Polaroid of their own window, photographed twenty-four hours ahead. At first they use it to win bets. Then they realise they have to make the scene in the photograph happen, and it moves on to murder, a cover-up and losing trust in each other. At the end it turns out the timeline cannot be changed; the warning note Callie writes falls off the window and everything happens exactly as pictured. Bradley King directed. Danielle Panabaker is in the cast. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 78 percent from 18 reviews with a 6.4 average. The Hollywood Reporter praised it for making the most of a simple brain-teasing premise, and Variety wrote that it never feels claustrophobic despite being confined almost entirely to one flat. It took a number of festival awards in 2014, and Danielle Panabaker won Best Actress at the London Independent Film Festival. Who it is for: viewers who like low-budget science fiction built on structure and thrillers set in one room. Who it is not for: anyone wanting an explanation. What the machine is and how it works is never addressed.