★★★

Ambitious, with a strong lead performance from character actor Samuel Dunning, the Spokane, Washington-shot film Tim Travers and the Time Travelers Paradox unfortunately devolves into a convoluted narrative that lost this viewer for a considerable period of time. However, though I was swimming upstream for a while watching this, Tim Travers is never boring - an energetic, surprisingly bloody, science-fiction comedy romp that never stops giving something to its audience.

Though low budget in terms of financial resources, a nice DIY vibe permeates through the film’s 105 minutes, as writer/director Stimson Snead orchestrates a tale of a mad scientist who, upon discovering a time machine, decides to kill himself to see, you know, what would happen. Over time, countless Tim Travers exist in the world, with Dunning effective in portraying various iterations of the same character. The editing work of J.D. McKee does considerable heavy lifting here, while Snead explores the concept of self-destruction, narcissism, while sprinkling in a dose of nihilism, the role of religious belief and thoughtful ruminations on our place in the universe.

Supporting turns from Felicia Day and cameos from Joel McHale, Danny Trejo, and Keith David are nice surprises. While I am not sure I can explain everything Snead has given viewers to consider, Tim Travers and the Time Travelers Paradox maximizes its resources and, if guilty of anything, forgets perhaps that, in many instances, less can so often prove to be more.

Tim Travers & the Time Travelers Paradox was screened as part of the 50th Seattle International Film Festival.