Primer: A Geek's Delight

        After watching it last Tuesday, Primer instantly became one of my favorite movies. As soon as I got home, I started researching about the film, reading all I could and figuring out the charts. I watched the movie twice more that same day, once with English subtitles and once with a fan audio commentary. All of this until I could finally get a somewhat clear picture of what happens in the film. I doubt there are more than a fistful of films right now that allow the audience to be such an active participant of the viewing experience. Primer is unique in that sense. In only 1 hour and 13 minutes, the film manages to create a super condensed, fascinating plot that invites the audience to re-watch, to speculate, to think.

        I love time travelling films. Back to the Future is one of my all time favorite movies. In Back to the Future, however, the way time travel is depicted is fairly easy to follow. You get two characters, the smart one -Doc Brown- and one with average intelligence -Marty McFly-, and no matter how complicated things are, Doc Brown always takes the time to explain Marty (and the audience along with him) how everything works. In Primer, we get two amplified versions of Doc Brown and no Marty. Furthermore, we only get to partially listen to our Docs talking to each other. Nowhere in the movie we get a sense that something is there for the sake of the audience. As a result, after watching Back to the Future you go home feeling contempt because everything was laid out in front of you, clean and clear, ready to be understood and, thus, your viewing experience ends as soon as the movie does. But with Primer, having so many questions and guesses and holes in the story, the end of the movie is only the beginning of the experience.

        Primer is made to be re-watched. It's made to be analyzed and picked apart and pondered upon. For anyone who gets easily obsessed with puzzles and paradoxes, Primer is the perfect movie to watch.