Have any of you seen the cinematic mind-fuck that is Primer? The novel movie's multiple time-travel shells were too confusing for Feral Boy, so he went to the now-closed forum found at primermovie.com for some answers. A superior interpretation of the film's events is pictured below. Feral Boy says "Check it out!"
Tip: A second viewing with the director's commentary enabled is a great intro to low-budget film-making (Unbelievably, the film was made for only $7000!).
2 comments:
I don't know much about science, but I know what I like. Primer establishes and sustains a sense of wonder (and a sense of dread) that fx-extravaganzas costing millions never approach.
I've watched it twice, and I'm still hard pressed to explain what happens in the third act, but I haven't checked out any of the supplementary material. I just don't go for that stuff, and part of what fascinates me about the film itself is that it feels like a genius trying to explain to a layman what happened, and the genius gradually forgets that he is indeed talking to a layman (the layman keeps nodding his head.)
I also think it's better than the more famous film it most resembles, Pi.
I think a better comparison would be "Memento", but your genius-to-layperson analogy is pitch perfect. Indeed, the third act implies much more than it explains and thus left me unsatisfied.
It was only after dipping into the website forum that I began to appreciate the shells within shells of time travel that are necessary in order to explain the plot, and it is in this regard that I think the movie falters - a narrative should not be this difficult to cypher! In the forum, much attention was also given to subtle hints - early in the film - of mistrust between the two main characters (which even upon second viewing I still didn't pick up).
In fact, the director claims (and I don't know that I believe him) that the script began as an exploration of trust and that the science, time travel, etc., came later.
While I was initially amazed by the novelty of the time travel, and loved the unabashed geekiness in the first act, the most impressive facets of the film are revealed in the director's commentary: after writing and storyboarding the script, the director filmed - and starred in - the movie in about a month's time, with most scenes accomplished in one take, after which he edited it on his computer - all for $7G.
Post a Comment