Film and Felt

Primer is the little sci-fi flick that could, complete with a $7000 budget, handheld camerawork, and so much unexplained scientific jargon that your head will likely be swimming with particles and electrons by the time you exit the theatre. Given the directorial style and topic matter, Primer could easily have degenerated into pretentious nonsense, but thankfully the script is sharp and void of clichés—so much so, in fact, that even the technical mumbo-jumbo is faintly interesting. The tagline—“If you always want what you can’t have, what do you want when you can have anything?”—really sums Primer up nicely: it takes a moment to comprehend what the hell it means, and even then…

Primer’s the story of four friends with an idea—something tickling the back of their minds, in a realm far distant from the simple error-checking devices that they’ve successfully created. A wild and creative vision lurks just beyond their grasp, dancing in the darkness, eluding them…until Aaron and Abe, the truly entrepreneurial and ambitious ones, stumble upon the secret invention. And it’s big—too big to market or sell, because it defies belief. Scientists scoff at samples…what would the world think? Rather than attempt to change people’s general conceptions, the two companions decide to attempt something even bigger. Will it work? If this seems rather elusive and vague, well, believe me, you’re not alone. Much of Primer involves themes-in-the-dark—frequently, everything seems unclear. The narrative alternates from present tense to a mysterious voice-over without warning. Twists in the storyline, while skillfully edited, are too convoluted to follow. It’s a relief that the performances and screenplay are so strong, or Primer really could have been an unmitigated disaster.

Director Shane Carruth wrote, produced, edited, shot, and starred in Primer in addition to his helming duties, and not surprisingly, bit off more than he could chew (oh yes, he also composed the original music!). Carruth has openly stated that Primer demands to be seen more than once, and he’s not kidding—it’s practically impossible to glean very much the first time through, although the picture does convey how powerfully technology can consume humanity—a possibility that deep down, all of us fear—and just how easily greed can destroy us. It also communicates the compelling nature of discovery; when Aaron and Abe discover that their device allows for time travel of sorts, Primer really becomes intriguing. Unfortunately, so much of the picture is impenetrable that the intrigue always remains dangling: like a cat chasing a ball of string, and like the friends’ initial quest for knowledge, it’s always just out of reach.

A friend—who has his own review of Primer up, actually—mentioned that perhaps the characters don’t really understand much of what they’re yapping about either, but I had the distinct impression that the characters’ jobs involved engineering or scientific research—the lingo came out too fluidly to believe otherwise. I do think, though, that once the technological exposition of the film is completed, a problem arises from the fact that both men never stop to consider what their invention means and its potential consequences—ae common pitfall among inventors, it seems. Regardless, it still appears to me that to really understand Primer, some scientific knowledge is necessary. Contrast this to Darren Aronofsky’s Pi, the first film that popped into my head while watching Primer—and a superior picture. Though heavily steeped in mathematical theory, it never comes across as imperative that we received our minors in trigonometry to comprehend its point. Perhaps I’m missing something, but I don’t think that seeing Primer a second time would really clear anything up, though having some idea of where things go might clarify the first thirty minutes a bit. All in all, there’s plenty to like about Carruth’s ambitious debut, but too many flaws to call it an unequivocal success.

© Gabe Leibowitz, 2004