Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)

Operating on a budget of change found down the back of the sofa, Primer takes the wise step of focusing on dialogue and editing over special effects in tackling the time travel conventions. So, there's a lot of unusually credible-sounding pseudoscience and a wildly deconstructed plot structure to give the viewer plenty to chew on, and it's no surprise that the film has generated fansites where causality et al. are hotly debated in circles. Carruth's debut makes a few good choices in making the two geeks who invent the machine refreshingly uninterested in using it beyond facilitating their own material advancement, and not having them fall prey to the standard traps awaiting the novice time traveller. But the frenetic cut-and-pasting of scenes is too badly signposted to allow for full deciphering without the indulgence of a saint: it feels like the director has fallen back on the resort of the aimless helmsman; namely, wilful obscurantism.

5/10