I’m going to try something new.
I’ve seen a lot of movie reviews and a lot of movie explanations, mostly either through someone’s blog (like this one!) or Youtube.
What I haven’t seen, and something I’ve been wanting more of, is something like a text commentary; something you can read along with that will help you understand what you are looking at in realtime, much like director’s commentary might. Ya, you’ll probably end up pausing a lot, but if you are like me, you do that already. Maybe this is just for me and no one else…
I’m thinking this should at least provide more information than a simple Wikipedia summary or a Youtube review. This took a lot longer than I expected!
Now, with regards to Primer specifically, there are great explanations and charts and stuff already out there, and I encourage you to read them.
Where these charts fail is that they lay out everything that happens, both seen and unseen, chronologically. With a movie like Primer, so much of the movie is unseen that these charts – while useful – don’t help connect the story with what you actually are seeing in real-time. Reading these charts is a great way to read the story the film is telling, but I’ve been wanting something that relies more the film as we the audience see it, and isn’t so… dry in the way it lays out the simple sequence of events.
In case you didn’t read the full title, I’m going to spoil everything; this isn’t a review. I’m going in as deep as possible to explain as much as I can. I’ve included a more in-depth explanation of Aaron’s journey at the very end of this post.
With that said, let’s begin.
Blakelisted 