By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.8 cats
Director: Shane Carruth
Starring: Casey Goodan | David Sullivan | Shane Carruth
Country: united_states
Year: 2004
Running time: 77
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/combined
Hilary says: “I think this is what my hell looks like: nerdy guys with flat voices talking in techie-speak and performing scientific experiments.
“I made the choice to leave after 20 minutes rather than stay and fall asleep. Perhaps sci-fi fans would be able to make it through to offer a more complete review.”
Michael says: “PRIMER got a lot of press at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It was made for less than $7000 and it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Festival’s Awards Ceremony. PRIMER certainly shows a lot of talent for filmmaking, and a lot of restraint in this day and age of computer-created special effects films. For these things I give it a lot of credit. However, watching PRIMER still annoyed me.
“Four friends spend all of their free time working on devices that they hope will prove to be innovative inventions that will ultimately make them lots of money. When Abe shows Aaron the results of a device they have been working on, the fabric of their lives is altered. Abe has discovered that the device they have created can send him back in time. The two immediately see this discovery as a way they can beat the stock market and make money. In fact, greed seems to be the motivating factor for these two geeky inventors. As the film progresses, the consequences of their actions escalate until the depths of Aaron’s callousness and greed is revealed.
“I can certainly understand why Hilary walked out after 20 minutes. The urge crossed my mind briefly after listening to 20 minutes of techno-babble and humming machines. Already the characters had begun to annoy me. When the discovery is revealed and the two A’s begin to take advantage of it I tried to follow the plot. I quickly lost the threads and grew frustrated. I tried to let go of the rationale behind the story and ride the flow of the film. That worked briefly, but I soon found myself trying to follow the film’s logic again, which annoyed me. Finally I gave up completely, mainly out of annoyance, and as the credits rolled, I was simply baffled.
“Discussing the film with Scot and Bob did help me to put the pieces together, and there were things about the film I enjoyed. It was an interesting premise, and it looked great (shot in Super 16 mm and blown up to 35 mm). Writer/director/star Shane Carruth will no doubt get a lot of acclaim for PRIMER, but his I will not be jumping on his bandwagon. Perhaps the story would work better in print, but translated to the screen, it was bogged down in it’s confusing theories. The acting was a little too blasé for me, and the characters just too annoying. (I am using that word a lot in this review… I wonder why?)
“In the end PRIMER is a good experiment, a la PI, but unlike Aranofsky’s terrific debut, it lacks an important audience connection. 2 cats”
Rick says: “Interesting how this film has such a polarized reaction. Count me in as one of the ones who highly enjoyed it. Maybe not an entirely original idea or execution as it did remind me, in subject, style and mood, of other films. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and Lars Van Trier’s EPIDEMIC come
to mind. I appreciated that the dialogue was meant not meant to be completely understood by non-engineers. Being a non-engineer, it enabled me to accept the plausibility the underlying science. And while it concluded clearly in the realm of science fiction and hysteria, I thought the transition from sense to senseless was pleasantly subtle – both in terms of their invention and in the psychological break down the characters experience.
“I imagine that there were plot incongruities, but they didn’t bother me. I have no interest in trying to map out ‘what actually happened’ in terms of the plot particulars. In fact I was annoyed by multiple audience members whispering to one another throughout the film about such things. It made perfect sense to me without having to grasp exactly how A leads to B and so on. Probably a good film to watch while you’re stoned. Oh, and I thought it was scary too. I gave myself chills thinking about it in bed that night. 4.5 cats.”
Scot says: “I personally loved PRIMER. It’s true that it made my head hurt and I did have to let go of trying to figure out exactly what was going on at one point, but a few hours after the film was over some of the pieces started to come together for me. I’ll definitely be seeing this one again after it settles a bit in my brain.
“It reminded me of my favorite time travel novel by David Gerrold, The Man Who Folded Himself, but without the cheesy device. The causality issues are handled in a very similar way and the use of two travelers makes things all the more mind-blowing. And it’s very cool for once to see a sci fi flick with no effects! (I’m not counting the floating aspirin shot.)
“I can’t believe Chadd missed this one! It’s been held over a week, you know… 5 cats”