Primer Movie Review:


What happens when you introduce a key device or concept from science-fiction into our universe?

In a small independent film made for a meager $7,000, writer, director and star Shane Carruth brings forth a film that begins with 4 friends working away in a friend’s garage as they try to put their minds together on a project that could save all their financial woes.

That is until two of the friends, Aaron and Abe (Carruth and David Sullivan), conclude that the device reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking its gravitational pull then they accidentally discover that with the device’s full potential they could have everything they have always wanted. The hardest question is what would you want if you could have anything? And if you got that what would be the consequences of keeping it?

“Primer” enters deep into the psyche of every corporate-drone and cubicle-prisoner on the planet. Like other films that comment on the structure of the office world through humor or tough narrative, “Primer” develops a new dazzling approach by introducing the most basic of sci-fi concepts, “the time machine”.

The film’s low budget, quick wit, mere 77 minute running time and intricate script allow the audience to suspend any disbelief on what “time-travel” is about and makes it more about what it would be like if this kind of “fantastical” element was really introduced to two real-life office drones. Think “The Outer Limits” set in real-life. Please stand by!

The questions, debates, conclusion, consequences and attention to detail make “Primer” probably one of most original and dazzling first films I have ever seen.

This film’s 30 million dollar special effect is intelligence and it oozes all sorts of it.

I did have a couple problems with some of the film’s editing structure and some of film’s twists lost me for a second but there is so much interesting stuff here to behold.

Given its financial constraints and wealth of intelligence, “Primer” is definitely a must-see for every sci-fi and would-be sci-fi fan out there.

So Says the Soothsayer



Dean Kish

There's a huge amount of talent in this micro-budget thriller. With his family and friends as cast and crew, and very few special effects, Shane Carruth spins a remarkably mind-bending tale that gets progressively more complicated and confusing. If he could've made some sense of it in the end, he'd have a masterpiece on his hands.

Aaron and Abe (Carruth and Sullivan) are young engineers who need some notoriety, so in their spare time they devise a machine that alters gravitational pull. But that's not all it does. Without telling their colleagues (Gooden and Upadhyaya) or families, they test the effects of bending time and space, but the further they go the more difficult it is to unravel the consequences.

Carruth's genius is his deceptive complexity. With a style reminiscent of Christopher Nolan's first films (Following and Memento), he assembles his story with jarring but engrossing crosscutting, masking the small budget with assured camerawork, evocative music and extremely subtle performances. Much of the dialog is hilariously impenetrable science-babble. Yet when Aaron and Abe use everyday words and phrases to discuss their time-space experiments, we understand them even less. It's witty, clever and disarming, and utterly gripping. "Are you hungry? I haven't eaten since later this afternoon."

Meanwhile, the two actors give it an emotional layer through their inner longing for success, their wonder at discovery, excitement at the possibilities, arrogance over their seemingly unlimited new powers, and fear about what they might have done to the world as a result. This is the strongest aspect of the film, and the only thing that resonates with us. Because as the story progresses, it ties itself up in knots until we simply are incapable of making any meaningful sense of it. We leave the cinema literally shaking our heads to untangle our thought strands.

If even the central characters can't follow their story, what chance do we have? Fortunately, it seems like Carruth knows what happened. So maybe frequent DVD viewings will help us decode his plotline. Although there's one thing that's not in doubt: we'll keep our eyes on Carruth as a filmmaker.

Rich Cline

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