I'm a big fan of Primer, Shane Carruth's first film. Primer is a low-budget wonder of a movie, a time-travel film that, unique in its genre, shows audiences exactly how bewildering such travel would be. I've waited nine years for Carruth's next film, but based on this trailer I'm a little concerned that he might be heading into Richard Kelly territory. On the other hand, on repeated viewings Primer holds up much better than Donnie Darko, so hopefully Upstream Color won't be another Southland Tales.
Just based on Primer alone there's enough to get excited about this movie. I think it's a safe bet that there will be a lot more going on in the narrative than what is presented in the teaser.
ReplyDeletePrimer was an amazing film. I'm not sure, though, that it would be a good idea to watch it repeatedly. Knowing how the film will go removes the viewer from the first two thirds of the film. I will revise my statement: only watch Primer again if you are wearing an earbud in one ear.
Primer reminds me a lot of Moon. Both are must-see low-budget sci-fi that is really smart, and both are films that will go places where you did not imagine that they would. These are stories that go far beyond the now-dated premises of Asimov or Clarke, yet also transcend the doll-selling culture of current Hollywood geek epics.
I loved Moon, as I love any high-concept film that forces me to think and doesn't try to spoon-feed me every little bit of information.
ReplyDeleteBoth films to me seem to suffer from third-act-itis: their ideas seem to become too big for the film-makers to keep a handle on them. In a JJ Abrams or a Joss Whedon film, those things are just too detrimental for their engineered productions. For both Moon and Primer, the struggles of the third act just seem to make the films more unpredictable and maybe more real. The party scene in Primer remains for me about as problematic as the final minutes of Moon. Like you say, though, if they spoon fed the audience the "correct answer", the third act would be worse. Their imperfection completes these films, the hallmark of great low-budget film-making.
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