Blinded by the science of geeks

Shane Carruth: Writer, director, editor and actor

Shane Carruth, an engineer who got tired of it and taught himself film-making, conceived, wrote, directed, edited and scored Primer. And, yes, he acts in it, too.

Several Sundance awards later, his film has been compared to cult hits such as Pi and Memento and one enthusiast has even suggested that it will "change the way films are made". But I've heard that one before.

In fact, it is one of those cheaply made, innovative and scramble-plotted efforts that you either like a lot or find incomprehensible.

Working by day for a corporation, a group of young middle-class engineers toil together in a garage in their own time on their own projects. While beavering away, they invent, almost by accident, a rough-and-ready time machine. It's all a matter, apparently, of a massive protein build-up.

The dialogue is mostly in the complicated techno-speak of physics, and none too readily understandable. The moral arrives when one of the young men says that he wishes there was a way to go back in time and prevent something from happening. The point is also made that science's best discoveries are usually stumbled upon during the quest for something else.

The slow realisation of the geeks that they are well out of their depth may well transmit itself to Primer's audiences, who are going to have to be very alert to discover the ins and outs of the plot. Some will find it fascinating, but its mere 77 minutes length was a blessing to me.

Primer
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