Let’s say you had a lot of time on your hands. You have so much time that let’s say you bring together every movie with a science fiction theme that is presently available on DVD. Now, you stack the DVD boxes chronologically in the middle of a room with a high ceiling. Near the top you will find 2004’s Primer.

Go ahead and reshuffle the DVD boxes, stacking these science fiction movies so that you put the easiest, simple ones first in the stack, and then the complex, textured ones go last. Near the top you would find Primer.

Reshuffle again. This time, stack these science fiction movies on DVD so that the most mentally rigorous science fiction films are on top of all the rest. Near the top you will find Primer.

This silly little stacking game can only be attempted by those who not only have a lot of time of their hands, but who also have little common sense along with sufficient wealth to enable them to own every movie with a science fiction theme that is available on DVD today. But, ultimately, this is only a mind game.

If you are someone who owns any science fiction movies on DVD, you will want to own Primer. But, don’t attempt the stacking thing at home. We are professionals. We know what we’re doing and we only did this virtually in our minds.

So, what’s Primer about? Fair enough. The simple (but, sadly, wrong) answer is: Primer is about two highly intelligent guys who accidentally invent a time machine.

What we know is this: David Sullivan and the film’s writer/director Shane Carruth play the two guys in Primer. But, there is more going on in Primer than merely their accidentally inventing a time machine and then suffering the consequences.

True, the two guys do, in fact, figure out how to travel in time using their invention, and true, they do suffer the consequences. But, thankfully, Primer is not about going back in time to prevent the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, or other such grandiose stories that you’ve already seen elsewhere in those other science fiction movies that end up at the bottom of any DVD stacking scheme regardless of the sort criteria.

Primer was filmed with hand-held cameras using the familiar documentary style that creates a high credibility. It is as if we are watching a nonfiction account of what the two guys did. Various competing emotions of this science fiction story are contrasted very abruptly to serve the purposes of the narrative. Visually, this is accomplished with very effective usage of lighting and how people are framed within the shots.

You will choose to believe that what you are seeing in Primer is true and credible because writer/director Shane Carruth made this film deliberately to do so. You will also find yourself pulled into the story of Primer so intensely as you attempt to process in your mind what happens to the two guys and why. Few science fiction movies have accomplished this.

Time travel as a theme in science fiction films often can be difficult for the audience because of the logical and mathematical complexities involved. What if you could go back in time and you could interact with yourself when you were younger? Primer expends very little, if any, energy attempting to make sense of such paradoxes regarding time travel. Instead, using only 77 minutes running time, this film submerges you deeply in a tight and engaging story about the unintended consequences of consequences.

The purity of the science fiction storytelling in Primer is downright astonishing. Most science fiction films are shallow and superficial in comparison to Primer. This film is so textured and nuanced that you likely will need time on your hands because you will definitely feel compelled to view the DVD more than once.