“Time Travel Is Dangerous” is Deeply, Dryly Hilarious
If science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that no problem has ever been solved by time travel. We’ve seen scientists, teenagers, and everyone in between trying to bend time to their will, but it never works. Written by Hillary Shakespeare, Anna-Elizabeth Shakespeare, and Chris Reading, and directed by Reading, the aptly titled Time Travel Is Dangerous takes a different approach to the typical sci-fi, time-jumping film. It’s more about the power of friendship than it is about controlling the passage of time.
courtesy of Time Travel Is Dangerous
Megan (Megan Stevenson) and Ruth (Ruth Syratt) run a vintage shop called Cha Cha Cha in Muswell Hill. They sell the usual older clothing and furniture, but they’re also hiding a massive secret about the shop’s finances. The reason their profit margin is so large is because they’re not buying these goods from other collectors. They’re using a time machine they found by the dumpster behind the shop to go back in time and collect their wares firsthand. Of course, as any time travel narrative teaches us, abusing the power of jumping to different periods of time never ends well. When the best friends fundamentally alter time as they know it, they turn to a group of ragtag scientists to help them out of their mess.
Time Travel Is Dangerous is presented in mockumentary fashion to devastatingly hilarious effect. The set-up is inherently comical. Two best friends galavanting through time and space, stealing artifacts and clothes to sell at their shop, is an incredible concept for a film. It’s elevated by the total dryness of the British humor the jokes are presented in. Ruth and Megan go back to the American Wild West and witness a gunfight. A cowboy is shot right in front of them, but their main concern is that his perfectly lived-in hat may have gotten blood on it. The scientists regularly call Ruth and Megan the dumbest people alive, and maybe they’re right, but that certainly bodes well for the audience. Time Travel Is Dangerous feels like the bizarre cousin to Cunk on Earth, another quintessentially dry piece of British mockumentary/documentary filmmaking. There’s not a doubt in my mind that Ruth, Megan, and Philomenia Cunk would get on like a house on fire.
courtesy of Time Travel Is Dangerous
It’s mind-boggling to learn that Stevenson and Syratt are, first and foremost, the real owners of a vintage shop in Muswell Hill called Cha Cha Cha. These women aren’t primarily actors, but it’s impossible to discern that from their performances. The two have an infectious chemistry and an expert sense of comedic timing. They’re the heart and soul of the film in an impressive number of ways, but it’s their friendship that guides Time Travel Is Dangerous toward its conclusion. The film is about the things friends will do for one another. Even if that means piloting a volatile time machine to a place called The Unreason. Love knows no bounds, temporal or otherwise.
The script from Reading and the Shakespeare sisters is crackling with life and momentum. If the viewer is tuned in to the wavelength of their specific humor, Time Travel Is Dangerous isn’t long enough. The first thirty or so minutes will simply fly by. Time Travel Is Dangerous does a wonderful job of inviting the audience into the weird world and mindset of its creators and stars, then lets loose in an equally enjoyable fashion. Even if you have time travel fatigue, the silly mockumentary style will cure you of any negative feelings toward the genre. Time Travel Is Dangerous is a low-fi, sci-fi romp that feels specially and expertly made for the lovers of smart, dry humor.
support your local film critic!
~
support your local film critic! ~
Beyond the Cinerama Dome is run by one perpetually tired film critic
and her anxious emotional support chihuahua named Frankie.
Your kind donation means Frankie doesn’t need to get a job…yet.
Follow me on BlueSky, Instagram, Letterboxd, YouTube, & Facebook. Check out Movies with My Dad, a new podcast recorded on the car ride home from the movies.