Salocin

Primer

Written, directed, edited and acted in by Shane Carruth, this intricate and convoluted movie was shown at the recent Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, to the enjoyment of - in my estimation - almost the entire theatre.

It is true that at Sundance, one reduces one's expectations because the films can be so random (if I ever get over the horrible trauma of the experience, I might one day tell you about the techno fish), but many are actually gems which beg to be discovered. Devoid of the big studio peer pressure and constrained by budgets smaller than the wallets they're held in, filmmakers with true ambition and some talent find themselves wringing filmworthy performances from undemanding actors, cheap rental equipment and by burning the midnight oil refining every inch of the script.

What results in this case is a movie that relies almost entirely on dialogue to communicate a story so convoluted that it probably requires several showings to fully understand (I had enough trouble getting into just one). The careful writing manages to avoid painful exposition, and while based on an unrealistic scientific premise, the script also avoids trying to explain it so clearly that it has to make up pseudo-science. As viewers, we end up content that it works, and that the protagonists understand it, even if we can only get it by virtue of a metaphor and a couple of circular arrows on a piece of paper.

Four men, physicists and programmers by training, work together in a garage trying to devise devices and circuitboards that will attract the attention of customers in the short term, and hopefully a venture capitalist in the longer term. While exploring the boundaries of their knowledge and experimenting with new designs, two of them consctruct a machine that seemingly does the impossible. The existence of this machine fundamentally changes their lives, and theoretically should allow them to obtain almost anything, but they are nevertheless hopelessly out of their depth when it comes to the ramifications of what they have built. Knowing this, they at first refrain from using it in ways that might put anyone at risk, but in the face of temptation, can they trust themselves, or each other, not to take advantage of their new horizons?

Cunning and engrossing, this movie demonstrates that the constraints placed upon modern filmmakers unleashes creativity. The obvious special effects and big-name actor expenditures employed by directors over-endowed with cash all too often replace, rather than enhance, the quality of the script and story, as it becomes easy to wow the audience. When the best special effect in the movie is a box that vaguely hums, but the audience still leaves the theatre thrilled, you know you've been witness to talent. I wholeheartedly recommend this to you, but realize that you would be very lucky to ever get the chance to see it.