Primer

(2004, Shane Carruth, USA)

rating = 86

As I left the theatre after seeing Primer, one of the other (very few) patrons asked me what I thought.   My reaction was to say "I really liked it", and then after hesitating (maybe for some subconscience dramatic effect I wasn't aware of at the time) I concluded with, "but I don't think I understood it." - the man who posed the question to me had the same reaction to the film as I did (as did many other people - not that it was seen by that many mind you).   With the brilliant scratching-head stupor of Mulholland Drive, Shane Carruth's debut film is probably the best film of 2004, wherein I have no actual idea of what just happened.

I don't mean to sound stupid, I don't think that I am, but Primer just simply dumbfounded me - yet it was in the most gloriously enjoyable way.   Sure, I realize the plot - it's the story of two gadget-heads who accidentally invent a time machine and end up turning their lives inside out and upside down and backwards and any other way that temporal science can turn their lives - but still, there is a twisted mindset that whips you around without ever seeing it coming.   The last forty-five minutes of the film (which is well over half of it) is a winding confusing road that leads to...hmmm, where does it lead to anyway?

Done on an almost non-existent budget and with the minimalistic feel of a grainy-eyed Tsai Ming-liang, Carruth has swirled together the best science fiction movie since Kubrick shot a phallic symbol into deep space.   With the tagline 'What happens if it actually works?', Primer works even when you don't know what actually happened.