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Relax, I'm From the Future is a time travel film with a unique twist, subverting cliches of the genre. Director Luke Higginson aimed to create a film that prioritizes humor and heart over hard sci-fi elements. The chemistry between actors Rhys Darby and Gabrielle Graham is a standout in the film, bringing the characters of Casper and Holly to life.

Fans of time travel stories will have a ball with Relax, I'm From the Future, which is the feature directorial debut of Luke Higginson. He also wrote the screenplay and edited the movie, culminating a ten-year journey since he first premiered the short film of the same name at TIFF 10.

Relax, I'm from the Future stars Our Flag Means Death's Rhys Darby as Casper, a novice time traveler who finds himself trapped in the past. He soon makes friends with Holly (Gabrielle Graham), a drifter who helps him make use...

Stop Making Sense, the remastered concert film that sowed delight at TIFF, opens on 300 Imax screens in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland. Locations Stateside number 260 ahead of a nationwide release next week.

The 1984 Talking Heads extravaganza from Jonathan Demme is presented in its new iteration by A24 — meaning the decades-old movie can now extend its reach to a new, younger audience that is A24’s core fan base. Opening numbers are hard to gauge since there aren’t many comps but there are parties, discos, stars and sellouts with film looking at about $1.5 million, including Thursday previews.

A 40th anniversary large-format special premiere screening at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month had people dancing in the aisles and broke Imax records. It was the company’s highest grossing live event, earning $640.8k and selling out 25 screens across 165 Imax locations in North America and the BFI Imax in London.

I’ve watched enough Doctor Who to know time is a complicated construct with rules fluctuating from one interpretation to the next. Thankfully, Rhys Darby’s Casper has time travel all figured out in Relax, I’m From the Future, a new time-traveling comedy that finally breaks the multiversal merry-go-round we’ve been riding for the past few years. In today’s exclusive Relax, I’m From the Future clip, Casper dismisses the Butterfly Effect and misinformation about multiple realities.

The scene finds Casper and Holly (Gabrielle Graham) discussing multiversal misnomers in a dimly lit diner over piping hot mugs of jitter juice. Casper explains how there’s only one reality, and that time is more like a mushy blob than anything we’ve seen in movies. Doc Brown lied to us, folks! Oh, the humanity! While branching paths in the timeline exist, they eventually converge in the same direction, leading toward a pre-determined future.

"Relax, I'm from the Future" is a new science fiction 'time travel' comedy feature, directed by Luke Higginson, starring Rhys Darby, Gabrielle Graham and Janine Theriault, releasing September 22, 2023 in theaters:

"...'Casper' arrives in the present day to prevent a major future catastrophe. He meets and befriends 'Holly'  and draws her into his plan by giving her his knowledge of the future so that she can make quick money. 

"However, they unwittingly alter the future themselves with their actions, until 'Doris' , another time traveller, arrives to stop them..."

Click the images to enlarge...

"You're a very disappointing time traveler." Blue Fox Ent. has revealed an official US trailer for an indie sci-fi comedy from Canada titled Relax, I'm From the Future, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Luke Higginson. The film premiered at a few festivals in Canada earlier in 2023, and is now set to open in art house theaters in the US later this month. A man from the future, now trapped in the past, tries to make a life for himself, oblivious to the consequences he has set in motion. Rhys Darby stars as Casper, who is now in his "past", our present, who teams up with a nonconformist skeptic to bring about his "plan" of saving the world. The cast also includes Gabrielle Graham, Julian Richings, and Janine Theriault. It looks like a properly wacky indie creation that seems just goofy enough to be mostly enjoyable. Have fun. // Continue...

When he’s not pining for Blackbeard’s embrace on Our Flag Means Death or reprimanding werewolves for using foul language, Rhys Darby fights for the future of humankind! Blue Fox Entertainment‘s Relax, I’m From The Future trailer is here to tickle your ribs after the long Labor Day weekend. The sci-fi comedy hails from Luke Higginson for his feature directorial debut. In addition to operating the camera, Higginson wrote the screenplay and edited the film inspired by his short film of the same name that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 10 years ago.

In the Relax, I’m From The Future trailer, Darby stars as Casper, a time traveler trapped in the past who befriends Holly (Gabrielle Graham), a jaded drifter. They exploit his knowledge of the future, oblivious to the consequences they have set in motion, while a more competent time traveler, Doris (Janine Theriault), tries to stop them.

Exclusive: Blue Fox Entertainment has taken U.S. rights to the sci-fi comedy Relax, I’m from the Future, starring Rhys Darby (Flight of the Conchords) and Gabrielle Graham (Possessor), from Wango Films. The film written and directed by Luke Higginson will be released in theaters nationwide this fall.

Based on a same-name 2013 short from Higginson, Relax follows Casper (Darby), a charming, but embarrassingly underprepared time traveler, now trapped in the past. When he befriends Holly (Graham), a jaded drifter, she helps him exploit his trivial knowledge of the future for a series of quick payouts, oblivious to the consequences they have set in motion. When tracked down by a more competent time traveler, Casper and Holly are forced to figure out what they mean to each other and whether the future they’ve threatened is even worth saving. Will they embrace their fate, or do they have the courage to change it?...

The festival wrapped up its 26th edition on August 3.

Korean action film The Roundup and US sci-fi The Artifice Girl won the gold awards for best Asian feature and best international feature, respectively, at the audience awards for the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, which wrapped its 26th edition on August 3.

Starring Eternals and Train To Busan’s Done Lee as a ‘best of a cop’, The Roundup is directed by Lee Sang-yong and acts as a sequel to 2017’s The Outlaws. The gold winner was also a box office hit in South Korea, recording over 12.5 million admissions (as...

A casual time traveler unintentionally makes a mess of the future when his latest trip winds up having potentially catastrophic consequences in director Luke Higginson’s feature debut, Relax, I’m From the Future. Based on Higginson’s 2013 short of the same name, the feature version expands on the idea of a man from the distant future interrupting a suicide attempt and turns it into a kind of chaotic buddy comedy about the end of the world as we know it, maybe. Casper lands in our present day from some time far in the future with a mission: document and archive the past that is lost to future generations and maybe brighten a day or two. Before long, hungry and alone,...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

We’ve been fortunate to cover Fantasia multiple times over the years and it, along with Frightfest and Grimmfest, are staples of Nerdly’s genre festival coverage. What’s so great about Fantasia is the eclectic nature of the films they screen – new films, old films, international films, weird films, documentaries… Fantasia films run the gamut of genres, tastes and subject matter. And it’s now in its 25th(!) year of doing so!

With that in mind here are a few films that stood out to me from the announced schedule and, hopefully, a few we’ll get to bring you reviews of in the near future! You can also check out Alain’s preview of Fantasia right here.

Final Cut (Coupez!) After opening this year’s Cannes, Final Cut (Coupez!), Michel Hazanavicius’s riotous remake of Shinichirou Ueda’s One Cut Of The Dead, is coming to North America.

Exclusive: Production has wrapped on under-the-radar sci-fi-comedy Relax, I’m From The Future, starring Jumanji and Flight Of The Concords actor Rhys Darby and Possessor and Twenties star Gabrielle Graham.

Pic follows Casper (Rhys Darby), a charming, but embarrassingly underprepared Time Traveller, now trapped in the past. When he befriends Holly (Gabrielle Graham), a jaded drifter, she helps him exploit his trivial knowledge of the future for a series of quick payouts, oblivious to the consequences they have set in motion. When tracked down by a more competent Time Traveller, Casper and Holly are forced to figure out what they mean to each other and whether the future they’ve threatened is even worth saving.

Tim Doiron (Wander) and James van der Woerd (Wander) are producing for Wango Films. Game Theory Films is handling distribution in Canada. Universal Pictures Content Group is handling international distribution.

The film, which was shot in Hamilton,...

A “Jacob’s Ladder”-ish paranoid thriller arriving just in time to find conspiracy theories plunked right in the middle of post-election American politics, “Wander” only muddies the water further. This latest collaboration between director April Mullen and writer Tim Doiron offers yet another unpredictable shift, but pushes its idiosyncrasies off a cliff before establishing any narrative terra firma.

There is some pleasure to be had in watching an atypically frenetic Aaron Eckhart as a Ptsd-afflicted loner wading deep into possibly-imagined evildoings in the Southwest, with Tommy Lee Jones and Heather Graham also welcome as two allies. Still, the film’s hyperbolic style and convoluted storytelling tend to exhaust patience rather than build intrigue, making for a muddle whose too-many twists and turns ultimately seem meaningless as well as implausible. Saban Films is releasing the Canadian co-production to American audiences via digital, on demand and available theaters Dec. 4.

At the town limits of desert hamlet Wander,...

Relax, I’m From the Future

Written and Directed by Luke Higginson

Canada, 2013

Time travel is a concept that has been explored in numerous movies throughout history, with varying results both commercially and critically. While the real-life technology for the endeavour remains a pipe dream, the exploration of its ramifications and effects has yet to slow down. Relax, I’m from the Future is the latest film to tackle the idea, using an innovative approach to produce a compelling short that examines the human effects of time travel.

The idea of exploring the loneliness that comes with time travel, and how it affects a person, is a fascinating one. There is no doubt that travelling through time would be a fundamental defining point in a person’s life, but to be unable to share that knowledge with anyone would doubtlessly take its toll, and Higginson’s script smartly tackles this...

The 38th Toronto International Film Festival has released an incredible guest list of celebrated talent from around the globe. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Catherine Breillat, Nicole Garcia, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bertrand Tavernier, Steve McQueen, Godfrey Reggio, Denis Villeneuve, Bill Condon, Jean-Marc Vallée, John Wells, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade, Atom Egoyan, Matthew Weiner, John Carney, Jason Reitman, Jason Bateman, Yorgos Servetas, Liza Johnson, Megan Griffiths, Fernando Eimbcke, Alexey Uchitel, Johnny Ma, Biyi Bandele, Rashid Masharawi, Paul Haggis, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Álex de la Iglesia, Bruce McDonald, Jennifer Baichwal, John Ridley, and Justin Chadwick.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers and artists are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:

Ahmad Abdalla, Hany Abu-Assad, Yuval Adler, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Alexandre Aja, Bruce Alcock, Gianni Amelio, Thanos Anastopoulos, Madeline Anderson, Nimród Antal, Louise Archambault,...

This afternoon, with poutine and local wine to mark the occasion, the Toronto International Film Festival announced their Canadian film selections. Programmers Steve Gravestock and Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo proudly pronounced that this year both new and seasoned filmmakers had the “curiosity and courage to show troubling issues occurring in our country in new and exciting ways.” Past festival favorite (and one of my personal own as well) Xavier Dolan, the always controversial Bruce Labruce and Jennifer Baichwal’s films garnered applause from the crowd at the majestic Royal York ballroom. Titles sure to draw headlines and attention in the Canadian slate are Denis Villeneuve’s locally filmed ‘Enemy‘ which has Jake Gyllenhall playing a man with two identities, torn between a mistress and a wife. Villeneuve’s other recent feature ‘Prisoners‘ was previously announced as a festival title. It’s worth mentioning that two feature films being presented at...