What an odd and interesting film this is. Low budget – yes – and absurd and nonsensical yet it tries to fly far higher than its resources allow. An epic time-travelling adventure with only two locations, both in the present. Dave Slade (Nicholas M. Garofolo, the co-writer) is a time traveler (although we never see any time other than our own) who changes the entire world through his writing (although we never see him write or actually learn what it is he wrote), and who interacts a great deal with people from the future, all of whom come to the same closed amusement park where he hangs out. Remarkable achievements for a guy who seems more likely to ask if you’re going to finish that sandwich. His adventures consist mostly of hanging out and talking to people, getting annoyed, and being senior version of Jay of “Jay & Silent Bob” fame.

The film takes place mostly in the aforenoted closed amusement park and Dave Slade’s apartment, which makes Travis Bickle’s flat seem palatial. He spends a lot of time in bed by himself and with other people, and although they all talk about sex a lot, everybody stays fully clothed and never touches each other. Oldman, also sometimes called “Old Man” (Dave Sweeney), seems to be a community theatre Cigarette Smoking Man who knows more than we do, but he is also the narrator, speaking in doggerel verse to advance the plot with forced rhynes.

About two minutes into the film the edibles kicked in, except I hadn’t taken any. Slade is repeatedly confronted by Terranova (Dakota Wollmer), who is from the future, but can neither tempt nor threaten Dave. Maybe because he doesn’t seem to know what she is talking about and frankly, neither did I. Two minutes into the film it felt like the edibles had kicked in, but I hadn’t taken any.

There is a plot here, but it is convoluted and mostly consists of people telling Slade he is the savior of the past and present and future, and him being really cranky about it. He spends time with his landlord Mary Lee (Rosie Xu), who is also his friend-with-benefits, with whom Dave becomes engaged, but then she vanishes. Alvara, (Arina Ozerova), a blonde who says things like, “You have a bulge in your pants and I like sex” but is revealed to be a “vampires” from the future who is also his “Lois Lane.” Then more “vanpiresses from the future arrive.”

Pop culture references fly fast and furious and even wholesale lifting of scenes occurs. Odman and Alcara quote, almost word for word, the exchange between Vader and Obi-Wan in A New Hope, then she “banishes that bastard to hell.” What does this have to do with anything? I don’t know, but okay.

After viewing the film I learned it is actually three chapters that make up the film, each one was made separately. The first chapter, “Twenty Twenty” won “Best Psychedelic Fantasy Short Film” at the 2020 Retro Avant Garde Film Festival, and perhaps that is the best way to view the film. It is a psychedelic fantasy all taking place in 2020 in the mind of a schizophrenic Dave Slade (that’s how I made sense of the film, at least).

If you want to see a film in which causal conversations like, “Dave Slade? You killed me in 2030?” / “Really? Who’s president in 2030, future boy?” happen outside of any context or plot, settle in for the ride of a life. This is an odd film and clearly a labor of love (for which I celebrate it!), a mashup of Doctor Who fan fiction and low budget filmmaking Christopher Nolan narratives unconnected to what comes before or after. I was never bored, but often very, very confused.

E out of 10 (seems appropriate for this film)