Primer: What's In the Box? Authenticity and Humanity.

Time travel films are tricky. Spend too much time explaining the mechanics of the time travel present, the narrative and characters are given the short stick. However, if the rules of time travel are not clearly sorted out, then the entire narrative and logic of the film collapses on itself. Shane Carruth's film Primer (2004) could arguably put in either category due to the film's extremely polarized response from audiences. But, let's take all of that aside and look at the film that is present. Because man this film is a doozy.

Created over the course of several years on a budget of seven thousand dollars before receiving a lot of hype at Sundance and amassing a cult following, Primer is the little film that could. Many people were alienated by the lack of exposition and heavy engineering/technical jargon present in the film, but for me, those aspects were terms of endearment. Primer feels like an incredibly personal tale that meant a lot to Carruth, which is odd considering the film is about time travel. But this film is an incredible achievement in itself for remaining authentic while also making time travel seem believable. Whether this is due to the limitations the shoestring budget gave Carruth or the fact that Carruth used to be an engineer and wanted to keep the scenario realistic, this was the first time I saw a time travel movie and thought, "Huh, maybe this could happen."

In addition to the ingenious time travel mechanics (i.e. the doubles, time travel not being instant), this film never forgets its characters. Both Aaron and Abe go on incredible journeys as characters as they go from mildly cocky, extremely brilliant garage scientists to human beings grappling with the ethics of their discovery, which they do not understand. The fact that both Abe and Aaron, who are depicted as very intelligent, struggle with the mechanics of the time travel box and what it means for humanity makes this story all the more relatable, and ultimately, more compelling. Watching Aaron and Abe realize that they will never understand this technology is both terrifying and intriguing, and the ways in which the characters diverge is both understandable and tragic. Abe may have gone back to his regular life out of guilt/fear and Aaron on to France where he can create more boxes out of greed, but we never stop wondering. Not just what happened in the film, but also what happens after, in context of not only the box, but also these two guys. Now that is good storytelling.