James vs His Future Self is now available on iTunes & VOD in Canada and starting on May 15, 2020 will be on Crave. It’s coming to Sky TV in the UK on April 27 and to the US on May 1.
Directed by Jeremy Lalonde James vs His Future Self is all about time. In the present, James feels like he is running out of time and in the future, James knows he doesn’t understand the value of time. S’kinda why we consume time travel books and movies so we can be reminded about the worth of time.
We talk about time the exact way we talk about money: you can save time and you can spend time. You can waste time. You’ve run out of time.
That’s the hinge of James vs His Future Self… If your future self came to you saying it’s high time to make dramatic changes and if you’re successful you could still make up for lost time. Would you listen to the warnings from your future self in the present?
When the movie opens James is a hyper focussed slightly obsessed I guess scientist or physicist or something…some kind of egghead and he’s determined to solve time travel. Which sets up this…is paradox the right word? I’m not sure but what’s it called when a man who is so focussed on time travel doesn’t value the time that he does have. He’s so busy creating time travel to get to the future he doesn’t live in the present.
He has delayed grieving his parents with his sister; Tommie-Amber Pirie who plays his sister is super annoyed by that. A fellow physicist slash egghead (played by Cleopatra Coleman) who fancies him is often ignored and rarely a priority. James is bad; he takes her for granted. Oh Oh.
Typically when somebody’s on drugs they need an intervention but when time travel is involved that requires a time traveller intervention.
Which is how Daniel Stern factors in. You gotta figure if you’re going to cast a time traveller whose mission it is to come back to past all older and wiser based on hard earned reflections that Daniel Stern as the astute Wonder Years narrator would be ideal to cast.
Though as Daniel reveals when he visited My Summer Lair this isn’t a hardcore sci-fi movie or even a time travel movie about trying to reunite your teenage parents at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance.
James vs His Future is a sweet comedy firmly set in the present because these truly are our Wonder Years. These are the only moments we’ll have; these happenings will be the ones that we reflect on when as we get older: fun, laughter and the people that we choose to love and people who choose to love us back. In an odd sort of way, love is often at the heart of almost every single time travel tale.
Second Chance Opportunities and hope and love and time run through James vs His Future with feverish energy. No different than Daniel Stern as a manic time traveller.
If you’ve seen him in Home Alone or Rookie of the Year then you know he provides his classic comedic shenanigans. Think of Kramer from Seinfeld as a time traveler whose came back to the present with a warning that’s kind of like what Daniel Stern is like…just with better facial hair. And in the end, is it enough? Does present James heed the warnings?
Well, I suppose I could tell you but that’s not as fun as finding out for yourself so at the risk of my future self coming and preventing me from telling you how this movie ends you could see for yourself.
Can’t decide what genre you’re in the mood for? See em all. It’s a totally fun movie if you just want to chill and not think too much: solid mix of romance and sci-fi so you get a couple of solid genres in there.
What would you want your future self to come to your present to warn you about?
Or tell you? Do you believe in spoilers from time travellers?
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
