You’ve probably seen films with overlapping storylines, but you’ve never seen anything quite like Time Code.  Like Robert Altman’s Short Cuts or P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia, where the lives of seemingly unrelated characters cross paths almost by chance, Code one-ups its predecessors (technically, at least) by allowing viewers to watch each story uniquely unfold by splitting the screen into quarters and showing four different plots developing at the same time.

Gimmicky?  You bet.  Potentially annoying?  Perhaps.  But the Brady Bunch-esque split-screen isn’t the only unique element of Code.  It’s one of the first pictures to be shot entirely in digital format instead of using film, which allows Code to be filmed in one long, ninety-three minute shot (standard cameras only hold enough film for about ten minutes).  There is no editing.  And no script, either - director Mike Figgis (Miss Julie) gave his actors a general idea of what he wanted in terms of Code’s plot, but most of what unfurls onscreen is improvised.

But wait, there’s more.  The four hand-held digital cameras all began filming at the same time, so the film progresses in real time.  So basically Figgis sent a group of about thirty actors with no script to improvise to four cameramen and - ninety-three minutes later - had a completed picture.  Figgis’ premise is audacious and groundbreaking, and it really makes you realize how awful and unoriginal films like Here on Earth and Where the Heart Is really are.

Code’s story (there isn’t much of one – remember, it’s improvised) focuses on Red Mullet, a film production company in Los Angeles. Mullet’s employees are your typically jaded Hollywood types and are portrayed by (among others) Holly Hunter (Living Out Loud), Steven Weber  (Wings) and Suzy Nakamura (The West Wing).  Stellan Skarsgård (Deep Blue Sea) plays Alex Green, one of Mullet’s founders and the thread that holds Code together.  Alex is a drunk, which affects his relationship with his co-workers and his wife (Deep Blue Sea co-star Saffron Burrows), and he’s having a fling with a struggling bisexual actress  (Salma Hayek, Dogma), who has a dangerously suspicious lover (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Mickey Blue Eyes).

While I’m not sure how much of the film is improvised, Code’s acting is pretty well done (a surprising portion of the acting talent in this film will also appear in Wim Wenders' upcoming film The Million Dollar Hotel).  Like any decent film about southern California, Code also prominently features earthquakes, drug use, booze, sex and lesbians (there are two girl-on-girl make-out scenes - Hayek vs. Tripplehorn and Burrows vs. Leslie Mann).  There’s even a bit of self-mockery thrown in for good measure, which makes Figgis’ slightly pretentious concept seem a bit easier to swallow.

1:33 - for drug use, sexual content, adult language and violence