Primer

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Horrorphile - July 2008

Primer

July 24th 2008 02:03

In that respect, but also due to Carruth’s uncompromising approach to the narrative and dialogue, which I mentioned earlier, Primer is an extraordinarily convincing and brilliant example of the paradox of traveling back in time …

Am I making sense? I’m not sure myself. Hang on; I’ll check with my duplicate self since they’re a more experienced traveller …

Errrr …. ow, my head hurts. And there’s a trickle of blood coming from my ear. I must have exited the machine too early. I’ll probably fall into a coma and you’ll have to set the machine so you can put us back in and start again.

Shane Carruth as Aaron

Writer/director Shane Carruth has a clever head on his shoulders. Arguably, almost scientifically, he’s too clever for his own good. Primer (2004), which won the Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, is about as heady a sf movie as you can get. When I say “heady” I mean complex, complicated, incomprehensible. For first time viewers definitely.

David Sullivan as Abe

In a humming metal box; Aaron (Shane Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan) are industrial engineers working for a large corporation. During the weekend and weekday nights, along with a couple of mates, they spend their time in Aaron’s garage working as fledgling entrepreneurs; pursuing scientific endeavours, specifically the production of error-checking devices.

One night whilst developing a compact superconductor device that will reduce the weight of an object (a Weeble toy) Aaron and Abe discover they’ve inadvertently invented a time-travel machine; a side-effect that’s too valuable to market. Immediately they decide not to tell their two colleagues. They build another two of the machines, each large enough for them to fit inside. However they can only travel back in time, so they initially use the device to travel back half a day or so they can capitalise on their knowledge of the stock market.

Primer David Sullivan and Shane Carruths

Abe and Aaron experiment with the time-travel prototype

Of course the implications and desire to meddle with their own lives becomes too much of a temptation, and thus as Aaron and Abe continue to repeat the cycle, making more and more duplicates of Aaron and Abe, they find themselves caught in an ever-widening paradox with built-in deep trouble and certifiable danger. Their friendship rapidly deteriorates as suspicion and distrust become paranoia and desperation.

Apart from the complicated mechanics of causality (time-travel paradoxes) Primer is essentially about two things; the moral dilemma posed by gaining such “supernatural” power, and the breakdown of a friendship. Shane Carruth wanted to make a sf puzzle that refused to play with the layman’s terms that 95% of Hollywood movies do. One can argue that he shot himself in the foot; the movie confused the bejesus out of most audiences. On the other hand (the one that writes as crookedly as the other – wink, wink, nudge, nudge), Primer is the single-most intelligent and provocative film about the quintessential problem of traveling back in time ever made.

Abe and Aaron arrive at the storage facility where they have the large-scale versions

Other movies have dealt with it, but on a more straight-forward entertainment level, such as The Terminator (1984) and Back to the Future. More recently the excellent Spanish flick Los Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes) had a story quite similar to Primer in which a man comes across a scientist and his time machine, travels back an hour and subsequently complicates the hell out of everything by creating duplicates of himself and – because it will only lead to tears – ends up desperately trying to remedy the situation by continuing to travel back in time to rectify the mistakes he keeps making (sheeesh, I’m already feeling like I’m going in circles ….)

Primer's writer/director Carruth (a former mathematician and engineer) studied physics while researching and writing the screenplay. His central characters’ dialogue is filled with the authentic jargon of scientists. This of course makes it very difficult for Joe Average Audience to understand what the fuck is going on. Of course on repeat viewings of the movie the structure and clues to the puzzle begin to fall into place … or out.

Aaron watches a duplicate of himself and Abe enter the storage facility

Primer is a case-study in DIY filmmaking. Carruth not only wrote, produced and directed the movie, he also acted as cinematographer, production designer, editor, composer, and cast himself in the role of Aaron, and he does a damn fine job in every department. The movie cost only $US7000! Amazing! Of course the movie does have a claustrophobic lo-fi look and feel to it, but at the same time it never looks cheap. There are no fancy special effects, not even trick camerawork to try and capture more than one Abe or Aaron in the same shot together. But there doesn’t need to be anything truly ambitious in the visual aspects of the movie, the concept and execution of the time-travel paradox is the real star of the film.

It’s a nightmare reality indeed. The taglines for the movie are: “What if it actually works?” and “If you always want what you can’t have, what do you want when you can have anything?” The former - in itself a great teaser tagline - is answered fairly quickly, while the latter is answered as a series of moral degradations eventually leading to the prospect of a possible murder and how to prevent it from happening. After Aaron and Abe become hopelessly embroiled in their own infernal design they attempt to reverse engineer a situation involving Abe’s girlfriend Rachel and her ex-boyfriend. To make matters worse Rachel’s father Mr. Granger becomes a liability when it becomes apparent he has meddled disastrously in Aaron and Abe’s invention and experiment.

Time-travel illustrated

Errrr … ow, my head hurts … So in that respect, but also due to Carruth’s uncompromising approach to the narrative and dialogue, which I mentioned earlier, Primer is an extraordinarily convincing and brilliant example of the paradox of traveling back in time. It’s also a brave film to eschew any convention exposition and to present such an unorthodox – in Hollywood terms – approach to plot structure. I’d be a mean-spirited liar if I said Primer was relatively easy to follow, and it’d be an understatement if I said Carruths was gifted.

Primer is his first movie, and like Darren Aronofsky’s existential Pi it garnered an immediate cult following. I’m not surprised, it kicks serious science-fiction butt. If you’re after an intellectually-challenging sf nightmare scenario, Primer is the perfect primer. I’m going to wait until my headache subsides and then I might watch the movie again to see if I can unravel a few more of the so-called clues to try and comprehend just how the movie succeeds in consuming itself.

Here is the stylish teaser trailer:

Here's the scene where Abe and Aaron first test the prototype and discover the side-effect that will lead to the realisation that will push them toward the moral dilemma that will result in the disastrous paradox:

Read John Doe's review here

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

July 24th 2008 03:57

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

The return of the mad scientist dabbling in forces that are beyond human understanding.

I detect a big quantum kick up his clacker from the universe.

It reminds me of my workplace some years ago.

I love it.

Comment by David O'Connell

July 24th 2008 04:27

Screen Fanatic

The next time Stephen Hawking drops in I'm gonna make sure we sit down together and watch this one! (;

Comment by Bryn

July 24th 2008 06:10

Horrorphile

Damo, hahaha! damn straight!

David, i'm sure Stephen would be able to give you the layman's lowdown!

Comment by JohnDoe

July 24th 2008 07:16

Film & TV on DVD

Hi Bryn,

Great review, I love the non-linear form you opted for.

Primer was one of the first reviews I ever did on Orble, you can read it HERE if you'd like. This could well be the greatest time travel movie ever.

It cpatures the true essence of invention which elevates the believability, it's exactly how I imagine it must have been for Bill Gates and co in his garage developing software early on.

Comment by TimmyH

July 24th 2008 14:35

Tech News
Can you HACK it?
Genyration

I loved this and would highly reccommend it!

Comment by Cibbuano

July 24th 2008 21:40

20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

I think I read JD's review back in the day... heard about it since... Geeks love it for its real physics...

Comment by Bryn

July 24th 2008 23:47

Horrorphile

JD, yeah, cheers for acklowedging the fromage-hinted sly nod to the movie structure

and a great review yourself! "Good googly mooglies, this high concept film captivated and enthralled, by the end my brain was a gooey, gelatinous mess at my feet ..." ... hahaha! Yeah, that's about where I was at too!

Comment by Bryn

July 24th 2008 23:52

Horrorphile

Cibby, oh yeah, this is most definitely an uber-geek sf flick!

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