RELAX, I'M FROM THE FUTURE - Mark Reviews Movies

Relax, I'm from the Future, Blue Fox Entertainment

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 21, 2023

There's an infectious kind of weirdo energy to Relax, I'm from the Future that quickly wins one over on its, well, very weird story. It involves a time-traveler from a future Earth, where and when, he insists, everything has worked out. Forget not panicking. This guy's message is not to bother.

As admirably silly as writer/director Luke Higginson's debut feature is, then, it's also surprisingly thoughtful in its questions about the purpose and meaning of society, culture, and a single life within the context of an ever-changing world and a future that is, according to someone who knows better than anyone else could, definitively set. There's a lot going on in this wacky comedy, in other words, and if the sudden appearance of some elaborate plotting in the third act means the story doesn't quite stick its landing, Higginson tries and often succeeds at tapping into some deeper ideas in the midst of the humor.

Our man from a long-away future is Casper (Rhys Darby), who has arrived "roughly" in the present day with a plan. That's what he says, of course, although the fact that he has to write out a makeshift journal from scraps of garbage and whatever paper he can borrow from complete strangers makes us wonder if this is the right person for whatever job he's meant to be doing. Darby plays the hapless time-jumper with equal parts sincerity and goofball charm, and that performance pretty much gives us an immediate sense of the tone Higginson is going for with the whole of the film.

The plot itself is a bit of a mystery, because there's a very specific truth about Casper's situation that re-contextualizes the story in a somewhat obvious but still vital way. What we know of his purpose, though, is that he has come to the past to do something. Some of it involves finding social and cultural artifacts of the early 21st century—a period Casper finds a lot less interesting than the few decades prior, although the means of time travel here doesn't allow for much choice in the matter.

He shows up, by the way, in suburban Hamilton, Ontario, dressed in a skin-tight, purple body suit and hood with no sense of where or when he even is. The character's sheer incompetence keeps us from asking too many questions about the mechanics of time travel, made possible by random portals that will start opening a bit more than a decade after the point of his arrival, or the apparently gaping hole of our understanding of Casper's mission.

That's fine, especially upon meeting the key player in whatever Casper's task is supposed to be. She's Holly (Gabrielle Graham), a young woman who once cared about things such as protesting injustice and other kinds of activism. None of it has worked, though, so now, she just kind of lounges around and accepts that, if things in the world are going to change, it won't be because of her or anything she does.

Upon meeting Casper—who's using his time in the past to explore and, until a librarian kicks him out, sleep in the library—in a park, she's skeptical of his claim of being from the future, except that he somehow know the name and artistic hobby of a diner employee named Percy (Julian Richings). Also, he accurately predicts a completely random event that no one without foreknowledge could have guessed—one that, by the way, also gets Percy to start re-evaluating his own present worth and future legacy, if he has either of those things in the first place.

Casper knows Percy does which might be a central component of his plan. As for Holly, though, it's probably better if she just helps Casper make money from the lottery and gambling on sports, lives a comfortable life, and really accepts that nothing she will or could do in her life will mean anything in the big picture. She's fine with the idea, because, after all, she has suspected as much for a while now.

For all of the ridiculous and clever and enigmatic things going on in this tale, its core is one of such considered questions. Does a single life matter in some cosmic way, or is it only a few who genuinely do? Is it possible to accept a significantly meaninglessness life, such as the one Casper promises Holly, or is it human nature to seek meaning, even in the face of seemingly incontrovertible evidence to the contrary? Should we trust that things will "work out," because people assume the brightest minds and most influential among us will arrive at solutions to the world's many problems, or is apathy a contributing cause of those issues?

Thankfully, the film is also funny, mainly because of the specifically off-kilter nature of its fish-out-of-water story, and clever, as Casper enlists the help of isolated conspiracy theorist Chuck (Zachary Bennett), in order to hide some of his secret stash, and a fellow time-traveler, the ruthless but lonely Doris (Janine Theriault), is on a mission to hunt down rogue chronology-leapers, with a device that's uncharacteristically friendly for the sheer amount of damage it can do.

Some of this, obviously, becomes a bit too much, especially since the third act of Higginson's screenplay introduces a slew of new ideas, has to clear up the already-established plot concerns, and rushes toward some kind of resolution that covers all of that. Consider the potential alternative, though, of a movie that doesn't take such or as many big swings as Relax, I'm from the Future, and the film becomes even more worthy of some admiration.

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