One of my absolute favorite movies is Primer. Written, directed, and scored by an engineer who also serves as the film’s leading actor, Primer stands as a testament to what science fiction can be. Too many science fiction works either are nothing but social commentary that use science as a glorified MacGuffin, or else have plots that exist primarily to rant about new scientific ideas. Primer has neither fault, beautifully embracing hard science while having a riveting interpersonal drama based on trust and deceit. Primer’s success is all the more amazing when you learn that it was shot for a budget of $7000 on Super 16 film stock. That’s simply unheard of these days.

Scott Tobias at The Onion A.V. Club apparently feels the same way: this week he has written a wonderful article lauding Primer’s incredible production values. Scott talks at length about how the use of film stock over digital, and the singular drive of the film’s creator, resulted in a surprisingly high-quality independent film. It’s a good read whether you’ve heard of Primer or not—and, if you haven’t, will hopefully help persuade you to add it to your Netflix queue.

(Hat tip: kottke)