Primer movie

I finally got to see the indie film Primer, written and directed by Shane Carruth, a former math major who worked in software development before getting into independent film. The movie is about a couple of engineers working on a tech startup who accidentally build a time machine. The plot is quite complex, with characters on intersecting temporal loops interfering in the lives of their past selves. The viewer is forced to reconstruct the plot from fragmentary information. While some find the film baffling, others have become obsessed with unraveling the plot and analyzing its self-consistency (see discussion on the Primer website, linked to above). Here is A.O. Scott's NYTimes review of the movie.

The director's commentary on the DVD is fascinating. Carruth gives very detailed information about how he managed to shoot the film on a $7K budget. Writing the script took a year, and editing two years, (both in Carruth's spare time, on his home computer) although the shooting itself was done in 5 weeks. Personally, I like the look of the film very much - it was shot on 16mm and then digitized for editing. Carruth comes across as a somewhat geeky but tremendously effective and determined guy. I can't wait to see his next film.

I am often struck by the similarities between indie film and doing a startup. Both require years of dedication and teamwork in the face of risk and skepticism.