From: mleeper@optonline.net   
      
   NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK is based on a story by popular science   
   fiction author Robert Silverberg.  Though he has been a prolific   
   author for the last seventy years(!), little of his work has been   
   filmed.  The only major exception is THE BICENTENNIAL MAN (based on   
   "The Positronic Man").   
      
   This film has a jazzy score and a diverse cast (and a touch of food   
   porn), and is divided into three sections, representing three   
   timelines, centering on Nick, Janine, and Tom.  Each starts in the   
   boardroom of a wealthy corporation with somebody is giving a talk   
   that sounds like double-talk.  In the middle, a "time shift" (or   
   "phase"--they seem to use the terms interchangeably) makes reality   
   change.  Apparently changing timelines is "time crime" but that   
   seems to happen anyway.  Nick thinks someone is trying to change   
   his timeline in specific.   
      
   Throughout the film people's lives get screwed up just the same way   
   they have been with time shifts.  Things get entangled, and one   
   character says, "We can't change the past; we can just clean up the   
   future a little bit."  (It sounds a bit like relationship   
   counseling.)  Also, people tend to speak in aphorisms (like that   
   one, or "Happiness is the only thing more fleeting than time.")   
      
   Nick signs up for a service called "Past Protect" which presumably   
   saves your memories from this timeline in case a time shift changes   
   something.  Oddly, memories from one timeline last for a few hours   
   when the timelines shift, but gradually fade.  Past Protect has   
   somehow lost most of his memories but he can remember Janine for a   
   while.  The idea in general creates situations similar to those in   
   TOTAL RECALL, though in this film Nick is looking for someone to be with him   
   forever in love rather than trying to have an adventure.   
      
   The mechanism for the time travel is not clear, though the body (or   
   a body) does go back in time (rather than just inhabit the person's   
   earlier body).  Not surprisingly, Nick's attempts to "fix" things   
   have a somewhat different effect.  (One nice touch is a close-up of   
   Nick's hand in each segment, revealing his different marital   
   statuses.)   
      
   Released in theaters 10/15/21.  Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4), or   
   6/10.   
      
   Film Credits:   
      
      
   What others are saying:   
      
      
   --   
   Mark R. Leeper   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)