Shane Carruth’s Locally Made Primer Makes at Least One Critic’s Best-of-the-Decade List

Speaking of best-of film lists …

A Friend of Unfair Park forwards along this Irish Times piece, in which critic Donald Clarke lists his Top 20 Films of the Noughties. And right there, at No. 20, is Shane Carruth‘s masterful mindfuck Primer, winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Drama Prize way back in January 2004. Writes Clarke of Primer, for which some viewers might want to consult this handy-dandy time line, “Astonishingly knotty time-travel drama made for next to nothing. Director Shane Carruth has yet to reappear.”

Course, the Friends of Unfair Park will recall that we did, in fact, spend the night with the recently moved-to-Frisco Carruth at the Magnolia in May, where he spoke at great length about his follow-up. (If it ever gets made, and it absolutely should, his sophomore effort has to potential to make Primer look like a sitcom pilot.) Primer, incidentally, also appears on this list of The Best Science Fiction Films of the Decade: “The hard edged reality of Primer lends itself to intense personal drama and as the situation escalates in ways that will be criminal to spoil for those who haven’t seen it. We feel the pain of our protagonists in a real and horrible way.”

Bonus: Here’s Friend of Unfair Park Mark Allen’s guide to Primer‘s filming locations. And, for those who forgot Primer‘s power, the trailer follows.