"Ok, ok. I'll explain the plot one more time..."
In all honesty, this movie barely qualifies for my "Was that in cinemas?" segment (designed to tell you about movies that you may not have seen), because if you know me and have ever had a discussion with me about cinema, I've probably already demanded that you watch Primer. It's a film that I feel so passionately about that I've actually had to remind myself from time to time to stop banging on about it quite so much. But now that I've got a louder drum, let me play the tune once more. Strap in, swallow an aspirin, and prepare for potentially one of the most interesting and difficult movies you've ever watched.
The plot of Primer seems simple enough. Abe and Aaron are two brainy engineers, suffering as meaningless pawns in their day-job and trying to work out a lucrative side-project for their off hours. They create a device that is intended to reduce an object's mass but, while they succeed, they find that there is a strange side effect. The object also goes back in time. Now, these guys are not your average mad-scientist stereotypes - the kinds who invent time travel and then immediately go back and punch a dinosaur in the face - these guys are smart. They meticulously plan out the best way to optimise the use of their new invention without mucking up the timeline (spoiler alert: it involves a lot of sitting around in a hotel room for twelve hours not talking to anyone). At first it works brilliantly, the boys play the stocks just enough so that the extra cash flow looks legitimate on their tax returns, but when human error causes a blip in the timeline and nothing drastic happens, Abe and Aaron begin testing the boundaries of what they can get away with (starting with a brilliantly natural "theoretical" discussion concerning whether you could punch your boss in the face, then go back and stop yourself doing it so that you still have the experience without the consequences) .
Now, that may sound as generic as a time travel movie could come, but trust me when I say that this film is completely different from anything else from the genre. Do you remember that scene in Looper when Bruce Willis tells Joseph Gordon-Levitt that he's not going to sit there and explain how time travel works because it would just be a waste of time, and it's a blatant nod to the audience to say "Look, just shut up and enjoy it."? Well Primer is the polar opposite of this. You literally need an engineering degree to follow the jargon being tossed around during the construction scenes, and the dialogue of "how time travel works in practice" is so fast-paced and complicated that I challenge anyone to actually get this film on the first watching. Even XKCD, notable "smart person" comic couldn't make sense of the timeline of the film.
Already, I hear some of you saying, "Jamie, why on Earth would I want to watch a film this confusing?" The answer is that, primarily due to the complicated plot structure and the unforgiving lack of exposition or explanation, the film is more immersive than many of today's blockbusters. As the characters begin to become more and more confused, losing track of where and when they are, misremembering things and making mistakes, so does the audience. There was a moment during my first viewing of Primer when I became so lost that I thought "No, I need to rewind this and try and make sense of that last scene, I don't get it." Then, as I did so, I began to laugh. I had had to go back in time to try and make sure that I wasn't making mistakes in the timeline of the movie. In that moment, it struck me that this may be the cleverest movie I'd seen in a long time.
It is also worth noting that the film is incredibly well made, given the budget of $7000 (I'd call it a shoestring budget, but I rather think they didn't have money to spare on shoestrings) and particular credit has to be given to Shane Curruth in his capacity as Director, Producer, Writer, Star, Sound Designer and Editor (as well as being a former software engineer himself). It is one of these films that really does seem like an impossible feat.
Of course, the biggest selling points of the film are also its biggest weaknesses. There was no way that Primer was ever going to make it big in the box office because so few people have the patience for films as confusing as this one (and even fewer want to pay to see it in a cinema without the luxury of pausing, rewinding or starting over). And the small budget means that there are no big setpieces, but a lot of "talky" scenes. Indeed, it's another one of these films that you, as reader, will probably have already decided whether you are going to watch. However, while I would normally encourage people to fight that gut reaction to certain movies, on this occasion I'm going to tell you to trust that instinct. If this film piques your interest because "OO! Smart Sci-Fi!" then you will absolutely enjoy this film (and go mad trying to figure it all out), but if you are currently thinking "Doesn't this blog usually have more pictures?" then I'd give it a miss. You don't have to be smart to enjoy the film, but you definitely need to be ready to feel stupid. And as incredible as Primer is, trust me, you'll be glad that you took that aspirin.
That's a wraaaa...AAAH! WHAT'S HAPPENING?
"Ok, ok. I'll explain the plot one more time..."
In all honesty, this movie barely qualifies for my "Was that in cinemas?" segment (designed to tell you about movies that you may not have seen), because if you know me and have ever had a discussion with me about cinema, I've probably...
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