1979

I sometimes get into an argument with myself if this is a Norman Jewison film or Al Pacino film.  It’s not a Barry Levinson film, although he shared an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.

Dustin Hoffman isn’t just an actor.  When he works, the film becomes all encompassing, and in the 1970s he was on a roll.  He wouldn’t just play a part.  He studies the part.  He fights over scenes.  He rewrites scripts.  He does everything they tell actors not to do.   Check out Tootsie to see the all too real scene between Hoffman and Albert Brooks about how hard his character is to work with.  That was reality for Hoffman.

Really good science fiction answers a really cool question that begins with “What If.”

Sadly, since Star Wars, science fiction his been thought to be spaceships flying through the galaxy or if we go back as far as the fifties, spaceships landing or attacking Earth.

Some really good science fiction doesn’t involve space, aliens or ray guns.

Time After Time takes off on two really great “What if” questions.

The first: What if H. G. Wells, instead of just writing “The Time Machine,” actually built one?