Once Within A Time poses a question to the audience as the credits roll: Which age is this: the sunset or the dawn? This film’s central premise reveals itself through an imaginative exploration of the mind, body, and soul. This unique film, more in line with the avant-garde, is a startling portrait of humanity, past, present, and future. The movie floods with apocalyptic imagery and attempts to showcase a doomsday reality through its non-linear, non-narrative structure. Though it is far from a downer, there is a recurring theme of innocence throughout, that despite the uncertainty of now, hope still exists in the prospect of tomorrow.
Director Godfrey Reggio, known for his experimental films, returns from a ten-year hiatus to bring Once Within A Time. The movie is constructed in the vibe of a tone poem, with fairy tale settings and visually arresting imagery. Enigmatic, as much as beautiful, the film creates an expressive canvas based on fear, destruction, and hope. In his boldest film, there is never a desire to spoon-feed a message to the audience but to imply and, if needed, bring them along through a swirling vortex of chaos, charm, and wonder.
Despite little plot, the movie, in just over fifty minutes, posits humanity’s destruction. Armageddon is at hand in many forms. Technological revolution. Environmental collapse. External forces. Self-annihilation. The movie starts in the proverbial beginning: The Garden of Eden, and from there, explores the bounds and depths of human error and discovery.
From the opening, the movie evokes a 3-D picture book come to life. A kaleidoscope effect affects the audience and indeed makes the experience immersive. Bombastic images weave a tapestry of distortion and clarity. The images rile emotion in the viewers, for good and evil. The twirling, rotating, and even randomness provide a visual experience as much a pleasure as a warning.
This film is not for the casual viewers. Students of the avant-garde will applaud this one, for it is the epitome of an experimental film. Narrative limits go out the window in favor of feeling and expression. To use modern jargon, this is a vibe movie. The audience will either feel it or not. Those who do will experience a tender and provoking ride. Once Within A Time is unafraid to be bold in comedic elements (Mike Tyson pops up) and dramatic elements (cue nuclear annihilation). It is an array of everything.
Message and themes aside, the movie is eye candy. Creativity is unbounded, and director Godfrey Reggio is firing on all cylinders, void of a narrative structure; he relies on raw and nurtured emotion to intrigue the audience. Coupled with a heart-racing and melancholy score by the legendary Philip Glass, Once Within A Time is in the best tradition of fairy tales. It is dark and unnerving but peppered with enough hope and cherries to lift the audience’s spirit and provoke their thoughts.
Returning to the central question posed by the movie is this age, the sunset or the dawn, Once Within A Time paints a startling reality audiences are all too familiar with today. Destruction peers around every corner, and the air is thick with the prospects of the end of the days. The film brandishes the darkness as both a lecture and a lesson.
While much is lost in the world, – innocence is not lost, and the film reinforces this idea. Each generation has a new opportunity to rise and fix the mistakes of the past. The most precise images in the film are that of children, the next generation. The movie posits the future, and all hope lies in these young faces. If anything, then it is the future ones that may light the spark to restore balance and guide humanity out of the dark to a brighter tomorrow.
Once Within A Time is, above all else, a battle cry. A visionary film for the time. It is a lesson on the past, an alarm about the present, and a warning for the future.
Once Within A Time is currently playing in select theaters courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDnhl79hpp8]
Once Within A Time is, above all else, a battle cry. A visionary film for the time. It is a lesson on the past, an alarm about the present, and a warning for the future.
-
GVN Rating
Writing & podcasting, for the love of movies.
His Letterboxd Favorites: The Dark Knight, Halloween, Jaws & Anora.
![‘Hamnet’ Review – A Devastating, Exalted Work Exploring Grief Through Art [TIFF 2025]](https://cdn.geekvibesnation.com/wp-media-folder-geek-vibes-nation/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Hamnet-4238_D005_00229_R-300x169.jpg "‘Hamnet’ Review – A Devastating, Exalted Work Exploring Grief Through Art [TIFF 2025]")
