Primer: Critic Reviews

Alluringly knotty.

An ingenious first film made on a budget of about $7,000 by a former engineer and self-taught filmmaker about the perils of ingenuity.

It's dense, and in a way that doesn't begin to reward the effort required to untie it.

What's impressive -- aside from the fact that Carruth got the thing made in the first place -- is that the movie's tone skates right between coherence and an appreciation for endless, even infinite possibilities.

Its analog-egghead approach may be the freshest thing the genre has seen since 2001.

An impressive, if muddled, first effort from writer-director-actor Shane Carruth.

This no-budget brainteaser from Dallas native Shane Carruth offers ample intellectual rewards.

Mind-bending thrillers like Primer are terrific viewing with your teenagers. Maybe if you're nice, they'll explain the ending to you.

It is maddening, fascinating and completely successful.

Scary, puzzling, and different.

A brilliant little indie thriller.

Carruth has made a fascinating first film and a solid foundation for things to come.

A jigsaw puzzle made of pieces that may or may not fit together, it assumes the intelligence and interest of its audience, a brave move that pays off big.

Despite its shortcomings, Primer remains watchable thanks to Carruth's dense and intriguing filmmaking.

The humorless, self-important narrative is so impenetrable, you'd have to consult a synopsis to know they're traveling back and forth in time in increments of a few hours, with unforeseen consequences.

It takes a lot for a movie to surprise today's jaded, seen-it, bought-the- PlayStation-version sci-fi fan. Primer can. Let it.

It's one thing to admire what writer/director/composer/actor Shane Carruth wrought on his $1.98 digicam budget; it's quite another to have to sit through the mind-numbing results.

An unapologetically cerebral movie of ideas.

It has all the hallmarks of an amateur production: questionable sound and picture quality, crude performances, and dubious editing.

Essentially, it's the story of weekend scientists who build a time machine in a suburban garage. But this nearly gets lost in a miasma of technical jargon and scientific conjecture.

Incredibly confusing but oddly compelling.

ridiculous, confusing, vaguely noir-ish nonsense

Discombobulating and mind-bending sci fi thriller. I think.