Primer (2004)

2007 #70
Shane Carruth | 74 mins | DVD | 12 / PG-13

According to many this is a real ‘love it or hate it’ film; in typically awkward fashion I’m going to place myself right in the middle.

The thing is, I can see both sides — there’s a great conceit here, with a decent plot built around it; but it drags the idea of treating your audience’s intelligence with respect too far into the realms of Simply Not Explaining Things Properly, including taking almost half the film for anything to become clear. Sadly this clarity only lasts a few minutes before things get muddled up again in the second half of the plot.

I’d like to be able to love Primer, but the things that make me want to hate it just pull it down.