Imagine you’re a happily married woman in 1966 and working on a revolutionary science project with your beloved husband. The project: a time machine. But you’re struggling with funding, and you’re missing something that could give your machine the push it needs to actually do the traveling. One fine day, you find what you need and decide to go 15 minutes into the future. When you get there, you quickly realize it hasn’t been 15 minutes, but 59 years instead. Now, in 2025, with no way back, you need to figure out how to live your life in this futuristic world. What will you discover, and will it affect your love? This is the basic premise of the Netflix original Our Times. But what seems like a cute rom-com sci-fi blend is actually a terrible attempt at making a “relaxed” feminist film. I suppose this is what “feminist propaganda” looks like in 2025, sigh.
Right off the bat, you’re going to notice Nora cooking for a very important guest, the man who is funding the project, and you’re going to be like, but she’s a scientist. Wrong, this is 1966, and even if a couple is progressive enough not to want kids, she’s going to be stuck in old-timey gender roles, because that’s all they know. Throughout the film, Nora and Hector are all over each other. Whether they’ve become successful at something or they’re just happy to see how the world’s changed, they’re kissing to celebrate. A true romance, you know? But suddenly, in 2025, Hector notices how much opportunity Nora has and starts to change a little. But I’ll stop there because this is a spoiler-free review.
While the concept of Our Times is quite interesting and a lot could’ve been done with this exact premise, the film in its entirety is plain boring, and in a lot of parts doesn’t even make sense. Like, tell me how these people are using the subway without modern-day money or buying tickets. But say we’re watching this movie with our brains switched off, then why does it want to be serious? I think it’s just trying to do way too many things at once, and it just fails to do anything right. But really, it all comes down to how poorly written films are today. Sure, you can make a cookie-cutter entertainer, a popcorn flick that one can watch while at home with their family for the summer, but then Netflix thinks we need second-screen films because we’re all loners and will keep on watching crap just because we have nothing else to do but doom scroll and be nasty about things we don’t know the first thing about. But, I digress.
Look, the ending of the film didn’t sit well with me at all. It just feels like flashy marketing without any actual meat on the bone. The sci-fi elements are essentially non-existent, so it should definitely not be considered in that category, but I will admit the romance is good in the first half of the film, and the chemistry is pretty good, but that’s all I can really appreciate here. It’s not that the message isn’t there, but the film is all over the place, and I didn’t like it at all. Oh, and they use the periodic table to say, “I love you.” I can’t even blame the actors, because they do the best they can to breathe life into this almost non-existent plot. I think I’ve read more interesting fan fiction than the plot of this movie, and that’s just sad.
The film looks like a TV movie, and you know it’s not high-budget; some of the color grading is quite strange, but I suppose I could say the design of the time machine was interesting, even if it didn’t make that much sense. I really can’t deal with the mediocrity of film anymore, when there’s so much wasted potential on all ends with time and money being spent on half-baked projects, while good storylines are left behind because we’re considered, as an audience, too dumb to enjoy them. It’s frankly quite ridiculous.
Popcorn entertainment doesn’t mean cooking up a plot that doesn’t really go anywhere at all. It just means it ought to keep you entertained simply. This film is hoping to pull that off, but also be moralistic and also be a genre-bender. I see the effort, but it’s a little bit lost in its own confusion, which is quite the shame. Also, just because something has an interesting message doesn’t mean we have to like how it gets there, and that’s the case for this one. The story isn’t predictable as such, though really, there isn’t much to it at all, but it’s just a familiar gift wrapped in new paper to make us feel like we’re seeing something new.
In truth, I think Our Times is way too superficial and doesn’t actually understand the feminist assignment it’s been given. The social angle feels like a device that’s been used to make it feel relevant, but it doesn’t really work. But I will admit that some of the dialogue from Hector definitely hits home, because we’re seeing so many men talk that way today. I suppose this film is for a slightly older audience, one that might feel like they’re being seen through Nora’s character. What could have been. But I do think my mom would’ve been bored in the first 15 minutes and turned it off, because there’s nothing catchy about the film that’ll keep you hooked. They need more to be entertained; I mean, they’ve been watching so much drama all their lives (both IRL and otherwise).
If I put myself in their shoes, I might’ve appreciated Our Times only slightly more. I still find it flawed, even if it’s catering to women who may have missed out and have a better chance now. Keeping that in mind, I give Our Times 2.5 out of 5 stars.
