Primer

This movie isn't leaving the number 1 position in my top 4. I think this movie is the perfect amount of everything. At 77 minutes it wastes a little bit of time at the start setting up the characters but in a meaningful way that the story would lack otherwise. But once the balls begins to roll it doesn't stop, every plot beat bounces one to another in a way that only leaves you gripped. The time machine is extremely well thought of, every which way around it has been fully explored before they wrote this script and it shows in the grounded rule setting that they stick to throughout the whole movie. But this movie never overstays it's welcome and deserves every last minute it takes up. I've heard people's complaints about it's vagueness and I can see where it comes from, but I'd prefer this film undersell and leave you wanting more than run too long and leave you bored by it's attempt to explain it's exact time travel plot which will always be better explain by a rewatch and a Reddit thread. I love the characters, everyone acts exactly how they should would and could. The failsafe seems a bit Deus ex machina but makes total sense, and of course Aaron would find it. I love the reveal at the end that this was all inside a loop with the earphones and how somethings change but they still turn out similar enough. The right balance of good and bad is in both of the main characters and I like that Aaron is the one to push the boundaries and ends up taking the most risks. The cinematography is masterful. Whichever student managed to do this as their first film must be doing great rn. All the choices in framing and composition are really precise and advanced really for what it is. I really liked the use of frames throughout the film - it kinda of reminds me of the coffin motif throughout the film. I really wanted to come away feeling different about this film from a rewatch, that the characters wouldn't ring true as real people or that the plot would have some glaringly obvious hole or oddity but it's truly cemented it's place in my top 4.