While the title makes it sound like a DIY video for anyone wanting to paint their home, Primer marks the film-making debut of Shane Carruth. It was shot low-budget, with almost no cast and crew and was written, directed, edited, scored and even stars it’s maker. What’s more impressive if that is was made for $7,000 (a figure that seems to have a relevance to film-making in the same way 1955 does in the Back to the Future films) by a man who was previously an engineer. Shane taught himself everything he knows about film-making in three years from a curriculum he devised.
The plot, to roughly sketch it out, is about backyard engineers who invent something, surprisingly they don’t really understand what it is or what they could do with it. Eventually it becomes apparent what its application is and it’s for these reasons they can no longer sell their invention, it’s simply too valuable. Sound intriguing? Well it is. But that is in a way the film’s Achilles heel, it has that build-up of tension you get whilst watching a peaceful suburban avenue cut scene prior to a giant apocalyptic event in disaster movies, you’re always thinking something amazing is coming. In a way it does come, but it’s a very underplayed event and very hazy as to what exactly it is at first. In short, speaking in analogy so as not to spoil it, the aliens do attack earth but they do it through political manipulation, the giant killer wave hardly crashes into our tallest buildings, its more like a slow flood. Interesting but hardly edge of your seat stuff.
With Primer however, it seems that this is its only problem story-wise, that and, at times, all the technical engineering speak can become confusing, but you don’t lose interest. Oh and there are some sound and production value lows that don’t help, but hey, this is low-fi filmmaking, so we’ll breeze over those. In all other respects it’s a unique and original story. The acting is very real and, well, un-acted, but it’s not reality TV acting a la The Blair Witch Project. The camera is always placed in the point of view of a nosey neighbour and for a time that’s how you feel, it also serves to keep you distanced from what’s going on. This builds your interest and the tension. As the film progresses however, and the plot slowly revealed, the complexity grows and the camera becomes more forth coming. Unfortunately, as we become more involved, the facts of the story have almost progressed so far that there’s no hope of fully appreciating what has gone on. You can understand it, but since you’re playing catch up, it’s not the same as being there with the characters all the time. Sort of like the difference between experiencing an accident and missing it by five minutes then asking someone what happened. The latter is the feeling you get once you’re past the halfway mark of the film.
That said though, it is a good film, you don’t get bored, like I said it’s also a very interesting and original idea, for the most part well executed, and in the light of my criticism they don’t make the film unwatchable or even annoying. Primer is ten times more interesting than your average Hollywood film, somehow it lacks a real ending but what it lacks almost echoes the film’s topic and so in the end makes it, not so much a mini masterpiece, but a mini marvel.
You can find out more about Primer via it’s website.
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