23 August 2005

Primer

I caught this when I was in Madrid in July. I thought I’d missed the UK release, figuring it would be a very low key release. It was released last Friday (19/08/05) in London and is being shown at 2 cinemas.

One sound bite used in the marketing of the film compares it to 2001, another to ‘Memento’ as directed by David Lynch. These critics are completely off base in my opinion.
The film bears no resemblance to ‘2001: A space Odyssey’ at all, in fact I don’t think it does this film any favours at all to compare it to anything, certainly the only films that come close in my mind are ‘Pi’ and ‘Tetsuo’. The premise is the best part for me, it’s a sci-fi film yes, there is time travel, yes but there are no special effects, no CGI and the film is all the better for it. Shane Carruth has said the film cost $7,000, the alleged same sum that Robert Rodriguez made ‘Desperado’ for. Sure, the crowds are not going to flock to see it as some will no doubt complain that it is difficult to follow as dialogue is muffled and the characters talk over each other but in my mind it’s a far better film than ‘Desperado’ and requires to the viewer to relax and let the film unfold, what’s great is that it’s so different from everything out at the moment. I’m not saying it’s a great film but it is well worth the time to go and see it and far better than most of the films on current release.

www.primerthemovie.co.uk

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