Primer.

Primer is a 2004 science fiction time travel movie, starring Shane Carruth and David Sullivan. The direction, writing, score and editing was done by Shane Carruth himself, all in just under a budget of 7000 dollars. I know, sounds like a waste of time, doesn't it? Probably cheap and poorly directed?
Allow me to tell you, it is the FARTHEST from these.

I'm an avid fan of all things time. Time, especially travelling in time, is a concept that fascinated ever since I learnt about it. Books and movies involving time and its paradoxes excite me beyond words. Primer, with its great reviews and strong cult following, was a movie I looked forward to watching. However, this 77-minute long feature left me utterly confused the first time I saw it. Frankly, yes, a little disappointed. But then, I researched the film, broke it down to the minutest of details, and let me tell you, every single words uttered in the movie, every single scene, however so it may seem insignificant, is very important. The dialogues are the keys to unlocking its complexity, so before you watch I might suggest turning on the subtitles. As a result, when I finally (sort-of) understood it, I would hail it as one of the best (if not THE BEST) time travel movie ever made. Now, I don't say this in terms of direction or scoring or cinematography. But, in terms of sheer originality and authenticity, as well as in the handling of a subject so fragile as time, this movie is, in all formality, awesome.

The movie starts off with four engineer friends building a machine to apparently reduce the weight of an object by cutting of its connection to earth's gravity, untethering it from the surroundings. The first ten minutes involves heavy usage of technical terms, involving superconductivity at extreme low temperatures (the physics is quite accurate, in fact), but this isn't important. The movie really begins to pick up pace soon after this. The machine they built turns out to be a time machine and can be used to travel back in time. Now from here on out, the movie requires complete and wholehearted attention. However, no matter how attentive you are, there is a point, about 3/4th into the movie when everyone loses track. I myself had to watch the movie three times to get a good grasp on things.

Yes, it has bad cinematography, yes, bad lighting, but nothing in the least looks cheap. The density and inherent paradoxical contradictions make this movie extremely complex and confusing, but all one requires is the slightest smallest idea on what is going to understand that this film is nothing short of mindblowing. Keep in mind, this movie depicts exactly what would happen if the delicate construct of time is disturbed even in the slightest way and the unthinkable consequences of what would follow. Time, if taken to be like, in every way, distance or weight, then in a technical sense, the movie is absolutely spot-on.

With the gears of my mind still whirring, and my heart still pumping, I mean it, honestly and truthfully, when I say : Shane Carruth is a bona fide genius.

9/10.    

Her.

He has a smile on his face. He smiles as he feels the rivulets of hot water falling on his naked body, the steam rising up within the shower booth. He turns off the shower and exits the stall. He stands in front of the mirror, admiring the name tattooed on his upper right chest, the name of his love. He knows he's going to meet her today. But before that he needs to look good.

He proceeds to shave and clean his face. He gels his hair, flosses his teeth. Then he goes to iron out the fine wrinkles from the suit he had tailored for himself especially for tonight. The smile is still on his face as he dresses himself impeccably. He stares at himself in the  mirror, and makes the slightest adjustment on his clothes. He now looks exactly like he did the day they had met. His smile becomes a grin.

He walks to the hallway filled with framed pictures of a time long past. Most of them are pictures of his dysfunctional family. The ones with his abusive father and cheating mother were the worst. He doesn't look at those pictures for a more than a few moments, because it brings back bad memories. He walks further into the hallway, where the pictures are of times he wished he could live again. Her pictures. The ones portraying their beautiful relationship. Her beautiful smile compared to his goofy one. Her perfect body language compared to his awkward one. His eyes tear up as he realizes that she had been the only good thing in his life. She had represented everything good in him. She had been his better half. And now he was going to be whole again.

He enters the living room and opens the front door. A rented car was in his driveway. He had sold his own car weeks after she had left. Cars were very dangerous things. He knew that. Nobody knew that better than him. He gets in and drives the car slowly to the top of the cliff, a few miles away. Getting out, he walks slowly to the cliff, until he is standing right on the edge. He stares down to the rocky ground below. He could almost hear her calling out to him, calling his name, calling, calling, calling.He gazes up and momentarily sees her face in the evening sky. That was enough for him. Tears roll out of his eyes but he laughs as he knows he's going to see her again. He steps off the edge.

The winds rushes past him as he falls faster and faster. He feels no pain, no remorse, no guilt. Only relief. And happiness. He closes his eyes a few feet above the ground. The world goes black, all sounds fade.

Slowly he opens his eyes. He doesn't know where he is, or when. All he is aware of is her face, staring into his. Seeing her smile again makes him tear up. Her hands rise up to his face, and wipes away the tears. She kisses him, embracing him tightly. "It's okay", she says, "You're home".


[This is just a story that I've been wanting to write for a long time. The content in no way suggests the way I feel. It is just fiction. Thank you for reading.]

Who Am I?

Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Varun and I like writing.
I write absolutely anything, from movie and book reviews to rants on wordly affairs to my own thoughts on life. Just to make it clear, this blog is not limited to one thing or one type of genre.
This is everything I think about. This is my wanderings, my wonderings, my musings and the happenings of my life. This is me.
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