Time Code

A confident and daring attempt by director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas, The Loss of Sexual Innocence) to plant his flag on the barely-explored shores of 21st century filmmaking, Time Code is an extraordinary experimental film. Shooting on hand-held digital video in four continuous takes all running at once, Figgis splits the screen in quadrants like a security camera monitor then, like an orchestral conductor, unspools a precisely synchronized 93 minutes of raw, unedited, real-time footage, tracking multiple, largely-improvised narratives about a sampling of misanthropic, self-absorbed Hollywood denizens. Because each scene is 1/4th of the screen, however, 90 percent of the nuance will be lost on video, unless seen on a very large TV. The ensemble cast includes Saffron Burrows, Salma Hayek, Stellan Skarsgard, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Holly Hunter and Kyle MacLaughlan. Recommended, with reservations. (R. Blackwelder)