The Infinite Man Rocks SXSW
The World Premiere of time travel comedy The Infinite Man has generated an overwhelmingly positive response at the SXSW Film Festival and is the only Australian film to make the time.com list of ‘ten films that made SXSW spectacular this year’, alongside Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, and Jon Favreau’s Chef. Moviefone today ranked it as the second best film at the fest behind Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. Both Screen Daily and The Hollywood Reporter supported the idea of international distribution, while Indiewire and The Playlist likened it to the time travel greats, with The Playlist rating it as an overall festival highlight.
Starring Josh McConville (The Turning), Hannah Marshall and Alex Dimitriades, The Infinite Man is a time travel comedy-romance about Dean (Josh McConville), a man whose attempts to construct the perfect romantic weekend backfire when he traps his lover Lana (Hannah Marshall) in an infinite loop.
Producers Kate Croser (Danger 5, My Tehran for Sale) and Sandy Cameron have just returned from the festival, which they attended with writer director Hugh Sullivan, lead actress Hannah Marshall, EP Cam Rogers, DOP Marden Dean, and composer/sound designer Jed Palmer. They said of the experience of the past week: “We knew the SXSW film festival was the ideal place to launch The Infinite Man because of its reputation for unearthing breakout indie films, but after three sold out screenings we’ve been really overwhelmed by how enthusiastically the US audiences and critics have embraced the film and we’re looking forward to bringing it home to Australian audiences later in the year.”
Screen Daily’s glowing review called it ‘fresh, intriguing and always watchable’ and endorsed international distribution, ‘The time travel film may well be a well-worn movie genre, but Australian film The Infinite Man takes it off in all new directions as an oddball inventor uses his device to try and craft the perfect moment for he and his girlfriend. An elegantly filmed three-hander, it is a smart, funny and oddly romantic indie film that deserves to find international distribution as well as further festival exposure.’
The Hollywood Reporter was equally as enthusiastic ‘”Smart Aussie comedy…The metaphoric possibilities of time-travel fantasies are unusually well exploited in The Infinite Man… the Aussie import would be easy to market in arthouses despite the absence of familiar faces on- or off-screen.”
Moviefone rated it as ‘the most quietly devastating and imaginatively inventive movie at the festival… all around jaw-dropping’. Leading indie film website Twitch dubbed it ‘‘Indie time travel mayhem at its best…the kind of movie you are going to want to watch time and time again. And time again… And time again...’.
Indiewire called it ‘An exemplary time travel comedy’ and ‘an impressively minimalist storytelling acheivement’, placing it in the company of classics of the genre: ‘Time travel mix-ups have provided ample fodder for a range of comedic material, from Back to the Future to Safety Not Guaranteed. The Australian romcom The Infinite Man is part of a rare breed that uses the constant pileup of future and past events to enhance its humor and intelligence at once.’
The Playlist said it, ‘might have been the best thing we saw all week. … an uncanny comedy that mixes the metaphysics of Groundhog Day with the emotionality of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a splash of the tech-y nerdiness of Primer. Comparing this film to those classics is kind of like carrying around a loaded gun, but it’s apt just the same’. Further praise went to director Hugh Sullivan for his debut feature “Every so often you see a movie at one of these festivals that seems to announce (loudly) a true filmmaking talent, one that should be watched closely in the years to come; “The Infinite Man” is one of those movies…a wildly creative, thrilling, unforgettable, heartbreaking work of a singular, visionary filmmaker. “The Infinite Man” is infinitely brilliant.”
The Infinite Man was produced by Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films, with investment from the South Australia Film Corporation (SAFC) through their FilmLab funding initiative, and development assistance from Screen Australia.
FilmLab is a $4.2million development initiative of the South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC), funded by the South Australian government. Designed to develop filmmakers who have a track record in short form to take the next step into long form film production, the initiative was also built to find unique new voices in Australian cinema.
The Infinite Man will be released in Australian cinemas in 2014 by Infinite Releasing with international sales handled by Shoreline Entertainment.