Review of Primer (2004) by Jayakrishnan R — 29 Jan 2015

Without hesitation, I can say that "Primer" is the most complex film I have ever seen. In a blissfully tight 80 minutes, first time director/writer/actor/editor/composer Shane Carruth expertly delivers a relentless stream of information, but never in such a way as to deliberately confuse or trick the audience. For a first time feature (made on an unfathomably meager $7,000), Carruth absolutely swung for the fences.

While the cold and somewhat distant tone adds to the experience, it also makes keeping track of certain people extremely difficult (Rachel and Granger, crucial figures that are only seen on screen twice sans dialogue, are only identified in brief voice over-- they are characters only in the loosest sense). There are also moments (particularly in the final twenty minutes) where the lack of special effects budget makes the storytelling a bit difficult to parse-- but these moments just further underscore the need to revisit "Primer" again and again. There is no hand-holding; Carruth trusts his audience with a story that basically requires days of meticulous discussion and intense thought (which is a rare thrill in cinema).

Unsettling, intellectually and morally engaging, and often unbearably intense, this is a triumph of Science fiction with a capital S.