Wednesday, June 26, 2013
UNRAVEL
Today's film was Shane Carruth's
in which a couple of intense engineering types stumble on a method to change time forces and, well, do it.
It is only when they prove able to make the thing happened that ideas begin to occur to them about how they can use the phenom.
Playing with the market, averting a tragedy at a party, getting some petty revenge on a guy they don't like.
The mechanics of the setup are pretty convincing in a quantum mechanics kind of way.
They work together pretty well until they don't.
Eventually there are feedback loops set up by the complicated thinking required and the guys get confused or don't about which version of time they are in.
This is not about moving back to the 19th century. More about altering a day or two here and there.
I got this because I really enjoyed Carruth's most recent film, also a sci-fi piece Upstream Color (2013)
The thing here, in addition to the fact that both movies are smart and demanding and beautifully achieved, is that Carruth has done them on the cheap.
This first film cost 7K with 16mm film. It does not show. It does prove how good the technology has gotten with optics as well as the electronic.
He won a Cannes prize with the first one.
Carruth is self taught and, with these two little masterpieces, he bears some watching. According to IMDb he does not have a second film in the works. Perhaps because he is a one man band. Writing, directing, acting, composing and editing all on his own. He does use a very skilled cameraman.
I may end up seeing this again some time. Could be a 4 or 5 based on the future. Perhaps I could use this machine to see if I will view it again. But that won't work. This machine only takes you back in a kind of short term time warp. This is because you have to wait it out and while it takes only a few minutes to have hours happen separately it is pretty boring to wait it out.
There is no embed feature on the trailer but you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CC60HJvZRE.
Labels: films
