Primer: Perhaps the Smartest Sci-Fi Film of All Time

If your all time favorite science-fiction movie stars California’s governor, please stop reading this review now. Still here? Good because in all likelihood you have not heard of Primer, a newly released DVD from Shane Carruth. This film is a must see for any serious sci-fi fan or for that matter any serious connoisseur of fine independent cinema. This intellectually challenging movie was made for just $7,000.00 in the summer of 2001. That was one fantastic investment since it earned more than $425,000.00 in a limited theatrical run and won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. The film tells the story of Abe (David Sullivan) and Aaron (Carruth), two young, hard working, and ambitious engineers, who spend their evenings and weekends trying to become the next Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak (the founders of Apple Computer for the trivia challenged) by creating and patenting new inventions in Aaron’s garage. While fine tuning one of these inventions, a machine which can counteract gravity, lowering an item’s apparent mass, the boys inadvertently discover that their device has some, well, unexpected capabilities too. Being careful not to spoil the story, it is fair to say that one of these capabilities seemingly allows Abe and Aaron to do just about anything they want and earn a ton of money in the process. From there the film looks at how absolute power affects the duo and examines how they deal with the consequences of their actions. To put it mildly, their lives change in unexpected and astounding ways. The plot is complex and void of exploding cars, supermodels dressed like hookers, and most of the normal Hollywood fare, in other words it is well written, if not a bit ambitious considering that many moviegoers will be challenged. The film is visually interesting, intense, and image driven. Viewers will find it hard to believe that much of the movie was filmed at Carruth’s parent’s house and a U-haul storage center. Almost a complex as this fine film’s story line, is the story of just how this movie was made. Carruth, who is math geek, wrote, directed, filmed, stared in, edited, and scored the movie. Carruth had worked at three engineering-oriented companies, but hated it. Then turned to writing short stories and novels, but soon realized that was not for him either. Eventually, Carruth hit on the idea of becoming a filmmaker. It didn’t seem to matter that he did not have the least idea about how movies were made. Carruth had very little money to invest in his new career, so Primer was made on a real shoe-string budget, but you wouldn’t know it from watching the movie, which looks every bit as good as major movies that can cost millions of dollars. In fact, Carruth’s tiny budget forced him to be creative, it almost makes you wonder if Hollywood should try forcing more filmmakers to be creative. The bottom line is that this PG-13 rated (for brief language) film is an excellent example of modern cinema well worth watching.