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Tim (Samuel Dunning) is a genius. Also an asshole. Also, he’s just cracked time travel. Also, he may have cracked… time. Something about his future self killing his past self to see what would happen? Anyway, it’s fine!

It’s fine.

Tim just needs some help to fix things and he’s got it. From Tim. Dozens of him.

Written and directed by Stimson Snead, Tim Travers is that unique strand of indie science fiction movie that balances massive ideas, the budget of a six pack of crisps and a surprising amount of heart with three or four very surprising cameos.

We’ll get to them, but first we need to talk about Samuel Dunning, who plays every Tim here and is presumably very tired now. The performances are fantastic, and Dunning and Snead find endless pockets of new qualities in this multiplied man that go in the last direction you’d expect. Traditionally, movies like this feature each duplicate getting steadily worse. These just get more honest, albeit in widely different directions. One Tim emerges as the leader and proceeds to make grand pronouncements and play with the lives of the others before paying a hefty price for it. Another pair of Tims fall in love and the movie’s best plot strand explores what happens when the idea of liking yourself becomes an externalised force. Dunning, whose Joel McHale-ian energy is great throughout, is especially good here as a man who is professionally smart but an idiot literally everywhere else, who realises there’s more to him than meets his eye. The movie is, arguably, a tiny bit overlong, but even in the slight dip in the middle, Dunning’s sheer force of personality, dramatic presence and comic timing more than carry you through. Tim isn’t a hero. But he’s also not a bad guy and Dunning takes us through that realisation with kindness and grace.

That foundation allows the movie to make some surprisingly big plays. Snead’s script shifting from poignancy to comedy, big ideas and back again, often in the same scene. A running joke about how much of a terrible kid Tim was pays off beautifully. The end sequence is entirely built around the most callous thing Adult Tim does and its consequences. The universe is broken almost before the opening credits and Tim’s journey from arrogance through fear and acceptance all plays out against that escalating crisis. There’s even, in one of the movie’s very fun cameos, a moment where Tim gets to talk to the man behind the curtain. That moment, and the way the Tims present unite against an opponent, is smartly handled. It’s also one of the only jokes that gets badly fumbled, with a cheap ‘gotcha!’ about independent publishing playing like it was dropped in late.

The occasional bum note is here for sure, but it’s almost always accounted for. Joel McHale is fantastic as a Rogan-alike DJ one Tim spas with while Felicia Day is excellent, and under-used, as his producer. Her character, Deliliah, is the only one who feels poorly served here, if nothing else because of just how good Day is with the screen time she has. Likewise, Danny Trejo as an amiable grandfather figure who is also a terrifying trained killer is enormous fun. Snead too is fantastic as the increasingly annoyed hitman sent to kill Tim, unaware of how many Tims there are to kill.

Verdict: With fifteen minutes cut, or moved around to give Day especially more material, this would be an all-time classic. As it stands it’s still very good. A vastly kind, clever and emotionally aware time travel movie that picks apart the sort of Asshole Genius protagonist inflicted on us so often and finds who he really is underneath all that. I liked him a lot. I think you will too. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart