PROJECT ALMANAC (Dean Israelite). 106 minutes. Rating: NNN
Where to watch: Netflix, iTunes
Project Almanac tries to do for the time travel movie what Josh Trank’s Chronicle did for superheroes, adopting the found-footage gimmick while slapping a backpack on the genre and adding plenty of teen hormones and angst.
The disorderly and often derivative space-time frolic never reaches the heights of Chronicle or the “temporal dislocation” fodder it humbly makes reference to – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Timecop, among more obvious classics – but it still manages to have fun.
The MTV-produced thriller stars handsome Jonny Weston as genius geek David, who, along with his dorky friends and the hot girl they manage to hoodwink into their clique, discovers how to rewind the clock by days, then weeks and so on. The secret is in the Xbox.
Being teens, they hopscotch through time to cheat on a test, get payback against a bully, win the lottery and hit up Lollapalooza. These juvenile antics are genuinely funny, particularly because David and company keep messing up and having to try over the laughs come with the repetition.
While most time travel movies try to fill in gaping plot holes with sly detours, Project Almanac never bothers, flouting its own rules as if to say that you’re missing the point if you’re searching for logic.
Things get overly serious and preposterous when each jump causes devastating ripple effects, but director Dean Israelite amps up the chaos so the swirling confusion keeps us enthralled – if not convinced.
This is the only section of the movie where the immediacy and narrow perspective of the found-footage format actually serves some narrative function. Otherwise, the POV hand-held aesthetic is a nuisance and a dated visual trend.
