Synopsis: At night and on weekends, four young men in a suburban garage are building devices out of spare parts. Two realize they have the beginnings of a time machine that can perhaps be a means to get whatever they want, at a possible price.
Director Shane Carruth made this mind-bending, Sundance Festival award-winning, 77 minutes with about $10,000. You'll also find his name in the credits under writer, actor, cinematographer, producer, editor, composer, sound designer, production designer and casting manager. It's an impressive one-man effort for someone who taught themselves film and the tight flow of dialogue and ideas hold the attention, even if the destination might be unclear. Might be, for I confess I'm not really sure what it's about.
Four guys are struggling to come up with an invention that will shoot them out of their garages into the big-time. Two of them build a rudimentary time machine intending to make a quick buck. But as the time-travel paradoxes start to multiply, causality gets confused and so did I. This is partly because the dialogue is often tongue-twisting conjecture about physics and metaphysics, and partly because my screening had muffled sound. Repeated viewings would pay off - the film is a mélange of possible interpretations, like other popular cinematic puzzles (Memento, anyone?). This makes full comprehension most cost-effective if you wait for the DVD, and even then it might be impossible.