With the separate story of Todd and Lindsay, Phillips shows interest in focusing on the tension within small stories. The central conflict between Todd and Lindsay is that Todd is uncertain how to convince Lindsay to let him film them having sex, a fetish he developed with ex-girlfriends but of which Lindsay is not interested. Early into the film, for sake of his sexual curiosities and to help his brother, Shonzi secretly films the couple fooling around, until he’s caught, and makes everything awkward. When Peter has a heart attack and Shonzi has to stay with Todd and Lindsay, things get even more awkward.
While it struggles to make something of that pitch, writer/director Linas Phillips has successfully made a movie that is unusual. His story about a developmentally challenged individual is less politically correct, and kinkier, than any movie that might even be comparable. But foiled by a weak imagination and clear limits to its awareness, “Rainbow Time” doesn’t become the strong feminist statement it ultimately wants to be. This is despite Phillips’ pointed creations: Shonzi's parody of a bro who thinks of women as body parts, his brother who wants to “own” a piece of his girlfriend by filming himself having sex with her, and a very welcoming woman (Lindsay) who is introduced by showing Todd what she made for work—a viral video of women being catcalled on the street. The film is more original than it is clever, which oddly becomes cloying throughout.
To the detriment of its humor and heart, "Rainbow Time" never establishes a strong tone. Shonzi’s misogyny is played for a type of shocking humor, like when he sexualizes his niece in a crayon drawing at the mere sight of her body in a bikini. The results are not funny but uncomfortable, both for a man sexualizing his niece, or the writer/director who using developmental disabilities as a very dangerous metaphor for the man-child. While Phillips’ embodiment of developmental disability does come with a comforting lack of showiness, “Rainbow Time” made me miss the skill in something like “Step Brothers,” which uses performance and acute character detail to make it believable that 40-year-old men would not have matured past a certain age. We can at least be glad that "Rainbow Time" is more laugh-less comedy than vanity drama.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46rmKKmkqTEbsDIppxmamBmgw%3D%3D