On a shoestring, Shane Carruth made a splash at Sundance with this clockwork enigma of a film. A pair of young engineers trying to start up a hi-tech business in their garage (building a Podkletnov device, for the technologically curious) accidentally invent a machine whose implications entangle them in a Web of distrust and plot twists so dense and thought-provoking that everyone to whom I've recommended the film has watched it several times just to absorb the full implications of it all. Atmospheric and hyper-realistic, this humble independent film is a unique and spectacular achievment in hard science fiction.

Better than Pi.

Just could not wrap my brain around it until I read some blog discussing the movie; sue me, I used crib notes. Twice? Ha it was on a loop until my roomate and I realized it was just never going to gel...loved it. (via Jimmy Z.)

A confounding time travel story, worth it.

You've never heard of this movie, but please hear it now.

Primer won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and has drawn repeat viewers eager to crack writer-director-star Shane Carruth's puzzler of a time-travel drama. Carruth, an engineer by training, plays inventor Aaron, whose entrepreneurial partnership with fellow brainiac Abe (David Sullivan) unexpectedly results in a process for traveling back several hours in time. The men initially use these rewind sessions to succeed in the stock market. But a dark consequence of their daily journeys eventually complicates matters. If this sounds like a very commercial, science fiction thriller, Primer is anything but that. Shot on 16mm for $7,000, the film has a tantalizing, sealed-in logic, akin to Memento, that forces viewers to see the fantastic with a certain dispassion. One may be tempted to sit through Primer again to more fully understand its paradoxes and ethical quandaries.

You have to want to understand this movie. Watch it once, and you'll never get it. Watch it twice, and you'll like it even more, but won't understand it. Watch it three times, once with the commentary on and then read about it for 6 hours on the internet and you'll begin to understand. It takes dedication, but its worth it.

Low budget done right! Time travel done in a interesting way.

If this is what you get when engineers become filmmakers, then we need more. Fantastic low budget independent movie. Loved the beginning; loved the middle; and am still trying to figure out the ending (though I am positive I'll love it after I've watched it a couple more times). Thanks to Joe for the recommendation. (via joe)