Speed of Life

Writer-director Liz Manashil's sci-fi dramedy is an exploration of love, patience, and fandom, as well as a much-needed starring role for the fabulous Dowd. Speed of Life's "future" isn't much different than our current present except for the fact that Alexa and Siri-like virtual monitors really do monitor and detect everything people say, and the elderly are kept away from society in restrictive care facilities that control retirees' lives. Dowd is an ideally cast counterpoint to Tolman, because they're both fine actresses with sharp comedic chops. Dowd plays June as a character who's brave enough to want to escape "the program" for elderly folks while also loving enough to embrace the possibility of Edward's return. And Perry is wonderful as Sam, who has every reason to feel threatened by Edward but continues to hope that he and June have the real thing.

Don't expect a lot of worldbuilding or exposition about what happened between 2016 and 2040 that led to the U.S. government controlling the lives of the over-60 set -- or to see much of the external world. Other than a few walks around the neighborhood, the action takes place inside June's, Sam's, and Laura's homes. Manashil isn't interested in a complicated or thoroughly researched futuristic world; it's just a generation in the future, when even those pesky "Millennials" are considered old. What Manashil does capture is the feeling of loss, of time there and then gone in an instant, of love and aging. The plot is thin and the runtime short, but this movie is more thought-provoking than expected.