Primer (2004)

Directed by Shane Carruth
Starring Shane Carruth, David Sullivan

Before I begin, let me start by saying that this film was made for a grand total of $7,000, most of the crew seems to consist of the actors' family members (including special mention in the credits to the Carruth family caterers) and yet won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic Film category at Sundance Film Festival in 2004.

Story
The movie's story begins simply enough, assuming you're an engineer. Aaron and his friend Abe are engineers, working at home in the garage to try and find the next big discovery without having to surrender it to their company, thereby losing the opportunity to cash in on the new technology.

One of their devices - quite literally a black box - has the immediately observable effect of reducing the weight of any object placed inside it. They're not sure how it does that, only that it does. But the more they experiment with the box, the more mysterious it becomes. It runs without power; it collects mold faster than it should; a watch placed inside it comes out telling the wrong time. Yes, Aaron and Abe have made time travel possible. So they build a box big enough to climb into and then the fun begins.

The movie progresses steadily from this point, examining the potential for exploiting such a technology in multiple ways and the steps one must take to avoid disrupting the standard flow of time. There's not too much damage that can be done since the box can't send you back to a time before you turned it on and you're limited by the amount of oxygen in the box (which can be supplemented by bringing along a canister of compressed oxygen).

I don't want to give too much more away, but suffice it to say things start to get a little confused (one of the characters remarks that he hasn't eaten since "later this afternoon"), a little personal, a little paradoxical, and a lot paranoid.

By the time the movie is over, the physical and mental stresses of such an existence catch up with not only the characters, but also the audience. You may need to watch the ending a few times to figure out exactly what's going on, and even then you might not be right.

Acting
Considering the budget for this film and the fact that the writer/director was also the lead actor (and that members of his family are credited as the caterers), you'd expect that the acting would suffer. Well, while it's not something to write home about, it certainly wasn't phoned in. You can see that the actors did make an effort to learn their lines and deliver them well. Everyone with lines does a good enough job to make you forget that this is a low budget film festival entry. Also, they acted better than I ever could, so I salute them for that.

Effects
Not much in the way of effects here. Even the props are pretty low budget. I'm pretty sure that they used CDs to construct the large version of their invention.

Atmosphere and Immersive Detail
Over the course of the film, the characters display a sense of displacement, never quite being comfortable with which timeline they're in, what they need to do to avoid a paradox, what happens when 2 copies of the same cell phone receive a phone call, etc. Their disorientation helps, but isn't completely necessary, to make you feel just as turned around and upside down as they are.

Summary
A good - albeit confusing - film. Not something I'd recommend for everyone though. If you subscribe to a science magazine or have ever read a book on physics, you're likely to enjoy this film. If your idea of science is something nerds do, then I'd skip this one. This film is my answer to why Hollywood always glosses over science, even when it was central to the source material (i.e.: Jurassic Park)

The Machinist (2004)

Directed by Brad Anderson
Starring Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh

I've liked Christian Bale as an actor for a while now, but I'll admit that his star rose for me only in the past few years when I rented American Psycho and saw him in Batman Begins. A friend recommended I see this movie, saying that it was a really good film and that Bale lost a dangerous amount of weight to play the lead role.

Story
A skinny outsider, trapped in a dead-end job and suffering from insomnia, meets some guy who apparently is so far below the radar that nobody else knows anything about him. As time goes on, the beginnings of a conspiracy are uncovered that will ultimately shake the core of the outsider and how he views the world.

Sound familiar? At first glance, this story smacks of Fight Club without the fight or the club, but ultimately, The Machinist is a completely standalone story. I’ve tried to avoid the recently ubiquitous “schizophrenic/invisible friend” movies ever since making the mistake of seeing “Identity”. Luckily, we’re not treated to that type of sensationalist supernatural representation.

Instead, the main character’s descent into madness is gradual and calculated with plenty of ominously foreboding elements. Hollywood tends to romanticize schizophrenia, and this movie is no exception, but at least it's subtle, closer to the way A Beautiful Mind pulled the wool over your eyes until the reveal and then maintained the effects of the character's illness. Overall I was impressed with the portrayal and the way the movie took you along for the ride.

Acting
In a classic De Niro-esque fashion, Christian Bale lost an incredible amount of weight to play the part of a man who hasn’t slept for a year. Every bone and muscle sinew sticks out from his seemingly 0% body fat physique. In one scene, you can actually count his ribs. The line “if you were any thinner, you wouldn’t exist” is repeated twice and isn’t far off the mark. A scene establishes that his character weighs south of 120 for most of the movie. Beyond that, Bale plays a very convincing paranoid insomniac. I’m surprised that I never heard about this movie until after Batman Begins, though I can see why Christopher Nolan knew that he’d have the intensity necessary to play Batman/Bruce Wayne.

There are some actresses that almost guarantee a nude scene in a movie. Somehow, Jennifer Jason Leigh can’t get through a movie without showing off some skin. It’s like it’s written into her contract or something. No exceptions here, though to be fair she is playing a call girl so there’s at least some justification.

Effects
The computerized effects in this movie are subtle, almost subliminal at times. Flashes of a man wearing glasses and a speedometer. A water tower in a background shot that turns out to be a giant swing ride on second glance. An eerie lensing effect looking through a camera’s viewfinder. Together these serve to raise the emotion of the mystery quite effectively.

Practical effects are equally emotional, though in a more terrifying manner. Most notable are the industrial accidents that are reminiscent of horror films. The portrayal of the slow clockwork progression of a gruesome death or maiming by a soulless machine is chilling. That said, gore is kept to a minimum and lighting is used to reduce what you see to what you think you might be seeing.

Music
The eerie and ominous orchestral score successfully heightens the mystery and suspense while complimenting the half-asleep waking dream state of the main character. (And I mean that in a good way.)

Atmospheric and Immersive Details
I’ve read somewhere that dreams are the way the rational mind makes sense of seemingly irrational events or events that the rational mind cannot face in the waking world. This movie capitalizes on this concept, moving the main character’s nightmare into his waking world because he is unable to sleep. An amusement park fun house ride in the middle of the movie serves as an extremely symbolic waking dream with almost every element hinting at the solution of the mystery. During the ride, the figuratively spiritual choice of Salvation vs Damnation is shown as a literal fork in the road with the fun house car heading to Hell on the left (the shoulder your devil sits on in superstition by the way). Left turns show up throughout the movie and ultimately play into the real reason that the main character drives so far out of his way to eat pie and coffee at the airport every night. It’s only once he faces his demons that he is finally able to make a right turn towards Salvation.

The use of imagery is vast, with specific elements appearing over and over (either in reality or imagined) and camera angles placed to include items important to the story or end a tracking shot on a word in a poster to add emphasis to the scene. Color and lighting help heighten the moods of the various scenes. Industrial machines appear deadlier and more menacing, characters appear surreal at times, and the darkness increases as the main character’s life continues to fall apart so that near the end there are no lights at all, only a few camping lanterns and flashlights. This light/dark theme carries right into the credits with a rarely seen fade to white and then black lettering against a white background.

Summary
A really good movie that I'm glad was recommended to me. Strong story, great detail, good acting and role preparation. This movie was right up my alley and I really enjoyed it. My only complaint would be that at times the story took a strange tangent that was unnecessary (Ivan's fingers) and though a solid film and one that I'd like to add to my collection, not one that I'd pick first to watch given a choice. Because of this, I've given it 4 Stars (Really Liked It).