Raja,
Stop. What. You. Are. Doing…
and go watch primer this instant. Then come back and read my review and comment. If you liked this movie, you will adore Primer. I promise you. And also, I agree with you about how little traction these fantastic movies get.

Taylor

I’m a year and a half later, but I’d like to add that I feel the same as you, Zern. The stupidity really damaged the movie for me. I think the worst of all was their reaction to lights going out.

You’ve apparently misunderstood my first paragraph. ‘this flick is nowhere near as good. Doesn’t come close. Nowhere. Near.’ is what I said about Coherence. Everything else is also about it. Now, the Primer is amongst my favourite, most-esteemed films, which is why I went on such an aggressive streak mentioning all the flaws I could recall about Coherence, which from my POV doesn’t hold a candle to it, when I saw them being compared. Coherence looks good and I wouldn’t say anything bad about the acting and whatnot, but the story and the setting, it really feels to me as a third-world-problem film, you know, a bunch of snobs who’s got it made just going nearly (and one of them completely) savage when they face a smallest problem, non-threatening even, and what they do is make it such. Which is why you can’t feel sorry for them! The plot is flat, it makes the sci-fi element irrelevant, throws it at the background.

As for the films, here’s thee you probably haven’t seen that also explore identity issues.
Face of Another, Clone Returns Home, Solaris (to hell with that Soderbergh version, I’m talking about Tarkovsky’s 1972 film). And also Moon, which everybody’s seen but it’s worth mentioning.

I personally like it when directors take a risk and do something totally different. Sure, the comet is a Deus Ex Machina to end them all. Sure the ad-libbing can show through occasionally, but overall it caught me by surprise as a movie that makes you have to think to follow it. I could argue with you point by point, but I really do not disagree with you. I just abhor avengers 27 and Jurassic Amusement Park 92 so much I’ll take something different every time.

Why don’t you give me a couple of your favorite films that I’d enjoy. I am seen a bunch of movies, but I am sure you have a golden nugget in there that I haven’t seen yet. Come on, out with it! Hahah. Thanks for taking the time to comment. I really do understand where you are coming from.

Hey Rebecca
So sorry I missed this comment. As I mentioned to Grom just a sec ago, I did a full tear down of the movie here If you are interested: http://taylorholmes.com/2015/06/19/movie-coherence-explained-and-interview-with-director-james-ward-byrkit/

But I’ll tell you here too. It was Em on Kevin’s voicemail. The happy Em that our main Em tried to kill in the bathroom. ‘What does he mean by HAPPY EM’ I hear you saying. She was the Em that said yes to Kevin’s request to go to Paris. Right? She was the one that didn’t hesitate, or not answer and therefore, say no. Our Em was looking for that Em that said yes, so she could take over that life with Kevin. But that all goes to crap when she is found out on the voicemail.

Hopefully that makes sense!
Taylor

Hey there Gromm,
Thanks for the comment. Just spent like twenty minutes banging out a response with my thumbs on an iPad when I got overly clever and lost the whole ream of brilliance. Bah. Anyway, first things first, I recently released my full tear down of this movie that you might find interesting… Like 3,000 words of rabbit holeness. But it’s the last 800 that are the money shot if you want to skip to the love. I also interviewed Byrkit as well and he made me aware of stuff that helped me uncover the money shot.

Which – leads you to say to yourself, who cares? – save for the fact that you are right on with your thoughts about us searching for that perfect self and that perfect choice. Byrkit told me straight out that Em isn’t looking for Kevin Prime. She’s looking for the Kevin she said yes too… The happy Em. The happy Kevin. Which speaks exactly to your point. It’s a plague in our society, that we are perpetually unhappy with our lives, while constantly giving off airs that say you are perpetually happy with it. (Facebook and Instagram much?) and what perfect backdrop for this incessant hunting for the perfectness of life than a Hollywood hills dinner party? I adore that layer added on top of all the existential chaos that’s so much more obvious. Why? Because imposter Em gets owned in the end. (Imposter is a funny thing to call the one Em we watch the whole movie long. She is the most real character we have to relate to.) and yet she is the one that tries to kill the happy version of herself. Instead of picking an unhappy Kevin and fixing it by apologizing, she attempts to kill happy Em and take her life.

Gorgeously played good sir.
Taylor

I wonder what your thoughts are about that reviewer’s comments. I don’t mean his comments about the film’s quality. Obviously fans like you and me who were mesmerized by the film don’t agree with him on that. But he did make a very interesting and imho valid comment in the last paragraph.

Here’s the relevant quote: “[Coherence] does offer a vivid and perhaps intentional satirical portrait of L.A. culture, where solid identities swap and get lost and seem always just out of reach. “We can’t trust ourselves,” someone says deep in, and the L.A. feeling of intoxicated unconnectedness, of being somewhere that’s really nowhere, may not have a more concise cinematic analogue.”

Imho this reading adds yet another layer to a film I already greatly appreciate. I wouldn’t say the film is being “satirical” with it, but the examination of “hunting for the continually elusive most perfect version of our life” is imho definitely intentional, since lines like “we can’t trust ourselves” are woven into the dialogue throughout the film.