This is prime agitprop.

The idea is that technology has developed so that everyone could *theoretically* stay 25 years old forever. However, everyone only has a certain amount of time (shown by a counter on their wrist), and if they run out they instantly die (for reasons that the film never explains). Time is used as both a currency and as a timer for how long people have to live, they pay rent with time, they buy food with time, they work for time, etcetera.

There are frankly monstrous levels of inequality and the film repeatedly makes the point the point that the system is set up to benefit those at the top and to limit social mobility at all costs (to the degree that a group of time-police turn up and confiscate all but 2 hours of the time of the main character, who's a working class guy from the slums, who got given over a century by a suicidal rich person who explained how the system was set up for the purpose of exploitation). The story says at various points that the titular capitalist makes nothing of value, and explicitly says "is it stealing if he already stole it?" in reference to them robbing and then distributing a time-lenders owned by said capitalist.

It also says that the main cop managed to pull himself out of the slums by making sure that no one else would ever leave and

It has loads of other stuff like that in it that I can't remember right now. All in all it's brilliant agitprop with the only exception being the bit where the main character gives the cop some time so that he'll just survive long enough for other cops to arrive and take him to withdraw some of his time from the bank or something (on the other hand though this is right after the main character's shot him in the chest and just before they steal his car and they make the point many times later that being a cop is scummy).

btw the film is also really horny so the two main characters are basically always either in really tight clothes or half naked (or entirely naked at one point).

  • Iminhere3000 [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Yeah this movie is great. Makes a good double feature with Elysium, another underated dystopian film from the last decade

    • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Elysium bored the ever-loving FUCK out of me, EXCEPT every single frame with Sharlto Copley. Him playing an unrelenting psychopath was just so much fun. I adored it, and I want him to play the villain more. Really, I want him to have more work no matter the case, but especially as a villain.

      • Tatoes [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        you know what movie bored the shit out of me? Interstellar.

        Yeah....like, immediately when his daughter said she cracked the code from her weird space-time-closet-dust that said, "STAY," I thought: Oh, he's going to end up in a dimension and try communicating with himself, isn't he? Also, Matthew McConaughey constantly playing a brainy-southern-time-is-an-illusion-big-head-thinky-man thing is getting a bit stale. And the grown-up version of the daughter was just teerrrrrrible acting. Just, baaad. Christopher Nolan seriously thinks waay too highly of himself and it's annoying. This post has nothing to do with anything, I just recently saw the movie and needed to get that off my chest.

        Same goes for Interstellar 2: Brad Pitt version. Boring-ass movie, why did I watch you? I guess Tommy Lee Jones was cool.

        • Nagarjuna [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Also, the whole point of the movie was dumb. Why would you continue the human race if you're not there to enjoy it?

      • Iminhere3000 [none/use name]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Didn't find it boring at all. I know it got panned pretty hard when it was released but you are all WRONG AS FUCK. Neill Blomkamp will eventually be reassessed and considered the best sci-fi director of our time. Yes, even Chappie is great

        Edit: also in regards to Elysium I am just a big sucker for the work of godlike genius Syd Mead. I just want to live in his imagination

        • LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          I really enjoyed Chappie. Elysium just didn't do it for me. Hard to say why. I only watched it the once and I just didn't give a fuck unless Copley was on screen.

          I'm totally down for Blomkamp's work. I really wish he got that Alien project off the ground.

        • bruhlmao [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          District 9 is an all time classic and has better effects than any blockbuster that has come out in the past 10 years

    • CommieTommy [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      yeah, it did get a bit old very quickly. If they'd actually been good puns then it might have been bearable or even occasionally funny but instead they just added the word time to everything, why did they even call the slum "Time", who names a bloody slum after the local currency?

  • sleepdealer [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I remember watching this in theaters as a young rabid JT fan. It holds up surprisingly well.

    • CommieTommy [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      the trick is to include an image.

      Image ==> more people notice post ==> more people click on post ==> more people comment on post ==> more dopamine hits for me

  • Audeamus [any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Cool idea. But I tried watching it and couldn't. Everyone being young gives weird vibes, like Timberlake's mom looking younger than him. The acting is so-so. You have to be able to take it less seriously to enjoy it.

    • CommieTommy [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      its hard to really enjoy it as a gritty, high stakes, drama or whatever because its just so overly trope-laden (also the aforementioned thirst of the script writer really shines through). As a dumb fun film where you're laughing at it about half the time, its far more enjoyable

  • Sealand_macronation [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    the main character gives the cop some time so that he’ll just survive long enough for other cops to arrive and take him to withdraw some of his time from the bank or something

    the analogy is a bit confusing

    • CommieTommy [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      oh absolutely, it's an absolute train wreck of a film, I'd be questioning the sanity of anyone who watched it and unironically thought it was an amazing work of art. But I can gauge some enjoyment from watching the trainwreck happen and laughing at it