Junta Yamaguchi's Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) is a masterclass in doing a lot with very little. Shot with an iPhone and utilizing only a few sets, they manage to fit some pretty high concept ideas into a scant 70 minute runtime. The script is snappy and intelligent and the film itself is presented as one continuous take, though eagle-eyed viewers might spot a few places where a cut could be hidden.
The main premise is deceptively simple: café owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) lives in the upstairs floor of his job. His computer monitor in his room is connected to a camera system downstairs so he can watch what is going on in his place. To his amazement, it seems that his monitor shows what will happen two minutes into the future!
This discovery leads to Kato hearing his future self tell him things, and then he has to run downstairs in real time after two minutes and "reenact" what his future self tells him in order to avoid a time paradox. In this way the entire film operates as a continuous two minute loop. This sounds like it could get repetitive really quickly, but the pacing and creativity keeps it fresh and amusing.
One of the main strengths of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is the ability to convey complex ideas in an easy to understand way without it feeling like a technical exposition dump. The characters are discovering these concepts at the same time as the audience and their exuberant excitement and glee at each new revelation is contagious. There are two monitors (they eventually dub them Time TVs) in the building, and they figure out that if they point them at each other it creates an infinite Droste effect where there are recursive monitors that each go an additional two minutes in the future (or the past depending on which one they look at) and they can see even farther. This is limited, of course, by the resolution of the monitors themselves as each additional "picture-in-picture" gets smaller and harder to see.
On the surface, the atmosphere is whimsical and lighthearted, but later in the film it does get a bit more serious as them mucking around with time starts to have a few consequences. There is also a tiny character arc with Kato as he has a crush on a woman who works at a shop next to his and she gets swept up in all the time travel nonsense. The stakes are never too high and the story wraps up in a rather absurdist fashion. Like most time travel stories, the harder you try to deconstruct what is going on the more it falls apart, but the film does establish a few ground rules that it sticks to and keeps consistent.
Even though it was shot on an iPhone the cinematography is inspired and the instant portability lets the camera person follow everyone around in frantic real time which adds to the zaniness. Beyond the Infinite Two minutes is a wholesome and warmhearted sci-fi yarn that should be on all sci-fi lovers' watchlists.
--Michelle Kisner