Primer
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
March 17, 2017 – Primer
This 2004 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner always has its plot description begin with “Made for seven thousand dollars…”. That’s a choice…I guess…but there are more interesting things about this movie to lead with. The other thing is that it looks like a $7,000 movie. There aren’t especially impressive things to make you think that it cost more, it’s not fooling you. This is a limited-locations drama that’s heavy on words. But the words part is what you should be leading with, as with all breakout indie dramas, the script’s the thing.
Shane Carruth stars and directs this story of a bunch of geniuses who are working on…something, when two of them stumble upon a time-loop manipulation that essentially creates alternate timelines. In these timelines, their alternate selves can do things to better their situation, while the original…waits it out. They use six-hour time loops after which, the double lives on. This is all explained and debated over in unapologetically dense dialogue. Carruth clearly doesn’t give a shit if you follow along. He’s got a story and a way to tell it, and it’s such a stylized film, from the droning voice over and monologue delivery to the bare bones production (there’s no technically jarring or amazing shot here, most of the sci-fi plot details are talked about), you may find yourself either in or out. Truthfully, I wavered in and out during the course of the movie.
The overall product and its effect is good, but the getting there can be trying. But here’s another filmmaker that’s making bold choices and sticking to them and staying strong to his delivery method. Not enough films today are director-driven. It’s hard to believe Carruth didn’t go on a filmmaking binge or get sucked into the Hollywood system. He, in fact, didn’t make another film until 2013, Upstream Color. How have I never even heard of this movie? It got even better reviews than the award-winning Primer, and it’s definitely going on my “Today I Watched…” list.
Directed by: Shane Carruth
Release Date: May 27, 2005
Run Time: 77 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: PG-13
Distributor: THINKFilm
