Primer (the movie) is what I expected from FogCreek.

Fact, Primer has absolutely nothing to do with software (except it was directed by a former software engineer)

Fact, Primer is a good movie

Fact, I didn't understand a thing that was going on...but it was still a good movie.

Fact, I still don't understand what was going on...but it was a good movie.

How can a movie about time-travel be a good software movie...well, it made me feel like I did when I read about the TRS-80 or using the Mac Plus for the first time. It was a geek movie. You hear about routers and you see soldering devices and motherboards, electronics. You see geeks talking really fast in boring ties.

weirdo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

Oh yea. I mention software because throughout the whole movie, you get the idea that these guys are building something. But, you really don't know much about it. Except that it is really cool.

"Goofs: Revealing mistakes: During numerous takes the director, Shane Carruth, mutters "cut" under his breath. According to the DVD commentary, this is due to their extremely low budget which did not allow them to "waste" film. Carruth notes that a total of 80 minutes of footage was shot; the final film is 78 minutes. "


Heh. I'm gonna put it in my Netflix queue just so I can hear that!

Even though this guy is a director, his software engineer skills show through. Somehow this guy fit this movie on a $7000 budget. Opensource movie development, hehe. $7000 is like what they spend on snacks on a day shoot in most movies.

And actually it didnt look or feel that cheaply made.

I think Memento was similarly cheap, and if I remember correctly, filmed sporadically over the course of several months (or was it years?).

I'd read some reviwes for this movie when it was in theaters, but ended up seeing something else that day instead. I'll definately check it out.

Primer was one of those movies where I thought it was good when I first saw it because the blown-up 16mm film look was cool and I couldn't really figure out what was happening. But it seemed cool! Then I watched it again and again to figure out what was going on. Then I ended up pissed because I wasted so much time on it. I guess he succeeded if repeated viewings was his goal. My non-nerd sister got bored within 10 minutes and gave up.

Ultimately I don't think there was much there. I didn't really care about any of the characters. What were their names, again? The plot ended up falling apart. Duplicate dopplegangers start screwing with history? And you don't know who is the real guy or the doppleganger? That was about it. What was the deal with the ending where that one guy was in South America (?) starting a revolution?

His style was good for being a 1st time director with no budget. He'd be much better off making music videos or TV commercials for IBM.

Primer rules. See it twice!