Projet Almanach

Il n'a pas fallu attendre le générique de fin pour comprendre que nous étions bien dans un produit destiné à remplir les grilles horaires des canaux jeunesse.

Pourtant, malgré toutes les faiblesses de film Hollywoodien, ce long métrage réussit à nous accrocher par ses rares moments cocasses, par son esthétique de caméra amateur qui, au départ agressante, devient rapidement intéressante et par ses effets visuels surprenants, sans qu'ils soient omniprésents.

In its closing moments, Project Almanac tries to generate tension by butterfly-effecting the audience into submission, but the consequences of David's action raise more questions than the movie's able to answer.

Perhaps they'll relate to the thumping, omnipresent music or the puppy love story or the notion that there's nothing more important than repairing something stupid you did the other day as opposed to using your stunning invention to make a worthwhile difference.

But along the way Almanac is forced to cheat so much with its ostensibly self-shot material that one has to ask why the format was chosen.

In theory, Project Almanac should be a dud (...) But in practice, Project Almanac has enough heart and brains to keep it steady (...).

The major innovation in Project Almanac is to toss a homemade time machine into the mix that allows a gang of teen nerds to manipulate the past and improve their social status, their grades, their wardrobe, their wheels and their love life. 

Evaluated on the concept's own terms, the script clearly could have used another do-over or two before Israelite and his cast took the plunge.

Par son jeu habité et fébrile, Jonny Weston s'impose au sein d'une distribution assez convaincante.