The Sticky Fingers of Time

This is a brilliant little gem of a film. Its plot is super-tight and it was made on a shoestring. I've watched it many a time since I am writing about it, and I always find more interesting details.

Time has five fingers
One is for the past
One is for the present
And three is the future
And four is for what could have been
And five for yet could be

Writer Tucker (Terumi Matthews) in Alice in Wonderland style unwittingly follows her mysterious beau from 1953 to 1997 and is involved in an attempt to change the past.

We are introduces to several story threads and personalities. As we try to keep up with this non-linier story. Can the past and future really be changed or does what we do Stick.

The film has that independent sight, sound, and feel; Shot on special color and black and whit film. The use of super 16 film and the second unit using 8 mm gives this film an other worldly look. They manage not to shake it as in Blair Witch.

On thing I like it the book that they created "The sticky fingers of time" It plays a part of keeping the continuity of the story and right up to the last has significance.

. . . And if you think eating pie makes your fingers sticky, you should try being one of nature's "time freaks," getting jerked back and forth through the space-time continuum (said time travel leaving a sticky residue on your skin where it oozes from orifices like your eyes).

One of the time freaks explains that time travel is like eating a pie. You can eat the slices in any order, but you can only eat each slice once. So The Sticky Fingers of Time is different from a lot of time-travel stories, where the time traveller keeps going back to change something and either (a) eventually gets it right (like Donnie Darko) or (b) learns that fate can't be changed (like Twelve Monkeys).

In this story, Drew, an unsuccessful and suicidal writer from the 1990s tries to save Tucker, a pulp writer from the 1940s, from winding up a bloody mess on the sidewalk outside her (Tucker's) apartment. (Drew and Tucker are both dark-haired women who resemble each other.)

Time traveller Isaac, Tucker's magazine editor from the 1940s, tries to get Drew to help him save Tucker now, in the 1990s. Isaac feels guilty because he sent Tucker to observe an H-bomb test at such close range it gave her cancer and turned her into a "time freak," someone who jumps through time at moments of passion or emotional stress.
Time freaks are drawn to each other because of something in their "codes," which can be extracted in part and put into other living organisms - - "reincarnation in a blender." But Drew and Tucker are drawn to each other on a more physical level. Drew says she hides behind non-prescription glasses because without them "I look too f***able." Tucker smiles at her and agrees.

Turning Tucker into a time freak apparently causes her death in the 1940s. Or at least that's when Tucker's body was found. Drew finds a fifty-year-old newspaper clipping about a "Mystery Writer Found Dead" in a paperback novel entitled The Sticky Fingers of Time, written by Tucker. Tucker was shot in the back of the head and found in the street in front of her apartment building.

At first, by the rules of the game, it would appear Isaac and Drew don't have a chance to save Tucker. Tucker's (future?) killer tells Drew: "You live the life, you pay the price." Drew's choices are "to die, to kill, to do nothing." But Drew finds another solution.

This movie is about more than just a novel time-travel gimmick. Drew is trapped by her fear. At the climax of the story we're watching (but at the very beginning of Drew's story, when she first jumped through time as a young girl, and experienced her first connection to Tucker) we learn what's necessary to overcome that fear in order to save ourselves and others.

Drew and Tucker aren't trapped by fate after all. Tucker doesn't know what her life will be because she hasn't started writing the book The Sticky Fingers of Time yet. And by throwing the pages of the novel away Drew freed herself to make any choice she wants, to act freely.

The movie The Sticky Fingers of Time is also an homage to postwar pulp fiction and a comment on modern recreations of that look. The opening scenes of the movie are like the covers of the old Gold Medal paperbacks that promised revelations about lesbian sex. Ofelia, the woman Tucker is living with in the forties, is the femme fatale in a revealing robe. Tucker, walking along the (black and white) streets, wears pants and a World War II uniform-type jacket. When Tucker finds herself catapulted fifty years into the (Technicolor) future, with these clothes she fits right in among the bohemians who haunt the used book stores and coffee houses.

Or, as Isaac says, commenting on the past and the present, "It's been a long day."

This film is a combination of science fiction and good old-fashioned film noir, complete with mystery and intrigue. It is a little slow to start but once you're hooked, you really do want more.

Without giving too much of the plot away, the story is about time-travelers and revolves around three main characters, with a fourth character who is integral to the story but doesn't get as much screen time as the other three. The characters are a female 1950s pulp detective novelist, the mysterious man one presumes to be her paramour, and a modern day woman. The fourth character is an intriguing African American woman whose presence is known throughout the movie but she isn't seen except at the beginning and the end. Essentially, these folks are time travelers and it is sort of through the modern woman's eyes that the viewer sees the events unfold. We know as much as she knows and we find out what she uncovers as the movie progresses.

This is a movie that is really hard to pin down without giving away all of the essential plot points. That's what makes it an interesting piece to watch. One suspects it was a low-budget film but even so, there's some really nice artistic flourishes thrown in and the acting is so good, you forget that it probably didn't cost too much to shoot this flick. I like how the film handles the concept of time travel without any flashy special effects. It's simple and just plain cool once you think about it. One caveat though, for those expecting a lesbian film, this is not really it. There is some lesbian subtext but for the most part heterosexuality is the maintext. I thought this was a lesbian movie about lesbians but that wasn't really the case. It's ok though because the movie is so interesting and well done. As long as you're not expecting a lesbian movie, you won't be disappointed.

You should watch this movie just because it will give you something to think about and discuss with anyone who watches it with you.

If you're looking for a film that takes chances, doesn't hide behind its special effects department and actually has a script that's smart and makes you think, then check out "The Sticky Fingers of Time." Hard to categorize, this "film noir/sci-fi/indie gem is the best film to come along in ages! It's dreamy, it's sexy. I want to watch it again and again.