No More Time – Movie Review (2/5)

NO MORE TIME is a pandemic indie thriller from 2022. It’s now finally coming out in a wider release. Unfortunately, I have to say the premise and promise of what could have been leave quite a lot to be desired. Overall, I was disappointed that it didn’t work better. Read our full No More Time movie review here!

NO MORE TIME is a pandemic thriller that hits on many familiar notes from the days of Covid past. It’s an indie production from 2022, so it’s been a long time coming to this wider release. It starts out very well, and I was completely on board, intrigued with the world-building. And then, it slowly started collapsing for me.

Despite its fairly short runtime of just 1 hour and 22 minutes, it had too many strange lulls along the way. I found myself getting annoyed with little details that shouldn’t matter. When they do, it’s because the story has lost me.

Continue reading our No More Time movie review below. Find it on Digital from December 19, 2025.

The familiarity of a pandemic

COVID may currently be a thing of the past, but a pandemic that changes how we live our lives is still a familiar memory. The face masks and distance keeping should be incorporated all the time and especially during the Holiday season and colder months, but we truly didn’t learn much.

Well, most people didn’t anyway. And we meet quite a lot of those people in No More Time.

We follow a couple (Jennifer Harlow and Mark Reeb, also co-story writer and executive producer, respectively) as they’re looking for a safe place to honker down. They’ve fled city life in Texas and have gone to the countryside of Colorado during a mysterious pandemic.

This particular pandemic makes people become violent and turn on their friends, neighbors, and family. Not unlike the “rage” of the 28 Days Later franchise, though not quite as “zombie-like”. It’s impossible to know who to trust, so they’ll come across quite a few strange characters during this movie.

One of the other survivors, who does appear to be a trustworthy and caring neighbor, is played by Tunde Adebimpe. Also, if you find the lead female character, Hilaire (Jennifer Harlow), has a sister with a familiar voice, it’s because it’s the voice of Amy Seimetz (Sweet Tooth).

Where is the dog?

You can call me one-track-minded or say that I focus on the wrong things, but do not include an element that I am then expected to forget. Especially if that “element” is an animal – and a dog, even.

In No More Time, we meet a couple, and it takes quite some time before we suddenly see that they have a dog with them. It appears in a scene suddenly, because their sweet little dog has a purpose: A “meet-cute” with a girl who wants to pet their dog.

After that, the dog is rarely in the movie or mentioned. Sure, we see it in the background once or twice, but when something strange (or noisy) happens, it’s never around. This completely ruins the illusion for me. Part of the brilliance of having an animal with you during an apocalyptic event is that it can help you.

And yet, in No More Time, this is never truly utilized. It feels like a strange afterthought for that one scene with the girl to work, but as a dog lover, I am now invested in the dog. Not unlike in I Am Legend or Darryl’s dog in The Walking Dead. As such, this completely ruined the overall experience for me.

If it were just me, I could (sort of) live with it. But there’s a reason why an entire website is named after people demanding to know whether the dog dies, before they’ll decide if they’ll watch a movie.

Watch No More Time on digital

The indie horror thriller comes from filmmaker Dalila Droege, and this is a feature film debut as both director and screenwriter. The story was co-written with star Jennifer Harlow (Hilaire in the movie), so the origin of the idea came from them both.

I did truly love the focus on nature and the role it played. And then again, this also made the whole dog-not-really-integrated-in-the-story even more strange. After all, animals are usually much more connected to nature than us, human beings. Despite us also being animals ourselves.

Despite my misgivings about the story, I do feel it’s a strong debut. Personally, I was irritated that it didn’t work better, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have a lot going for it. Those elements that did not work just ended up taking over too much of my focus.

No More Time is out on digital on December 19, 2025.

Details

Written and Directed by: Dalila Droege
Story by: Jennifer Harlow & Dalila Droege
Stars: Jennifer Harlow, Mark Reeb, Tunde Adebimpe, David Sullivan, Jim Beaver, Amy Seimetz (voice)