In 1907 Dr. Plonk, scientist and inventor, discovered the world was due to end in just over one hundred years. Yet government officials of the day did not take him seriously, forcing Plonk to build a time machine and bring back proof. And that, with the dubious help of his loyal wife and their deaf assistant, is what he did.

From the complex and erratic mind of legendary filmmaker Rolf de Heer (Bad Boy Bubby, The Tracker, Ten Canoes) comes a Keaton-esque comedy of time travel, inappropriate authority, lost Prime Ministers and a small dog called Tiberius. In some ways Dr. Plonk is the first film with carbon-neutral aspirations, and very much a product of its time – it was born of a desire to recycle out-of-date film-stock that led de Heer directly to his first silent-era, black-and-white, hand-cranked feature.

A physical comedy with passing nods to bigger issues (Australian Presidents Nixon and Bush, plus Ponk’s encounter with suburban families zombified by television), de Heer plays the laughs for laughs. This is a film about kicks up the arse and inept police officials chasing each other in circles. It speaks directly from Chaplin’s legacy, and is a laugh-a-thon first and foremost.

Matters are governed by the dextrous debut of Nigel Lunghi whose physical comedy runs from delightfully in control to wildly out of control, this due largely to the ineptitude of his roly-poly wife (the effortless Szubanski) and their forlorn assistant (Paul Blackwell) whose face cold sink a thousand ships. Even though Dr. Plonk ends up staying one reel too long, it is still a fun encounter that recalls wet Saturday afternoons in the best possible way.

// COLIN FRASER