One Viewing of Upstream Color Deserves Another

Written & Directed by Shane Carruth

Starring Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins

Not Rated, 96 minutes

Upstream Color is a uniquely magnificent and sometimes confounding experience. A film that makes us accept what we are seeing with little explanation as to what is going on. It trusts audience enough to figure out what it means if they are willing to put in the effort.

The plot is told in a very loose style, and the least I say about it the better it will be for those going in fresh. Simply put, the movie is about a woman name Kris (Amy Seimetz) who is infected with a worm-like organism writhing under her skin. Through mere chance, she meets a man (played by Shane Carruth himself) who may have had the same thing happen to him. The two of them start a relationship and try help each other the best they can.

Every single shot of this movie is just absolutely stunning. The inventive ways in which the information necessary for us to begin to understand what is going on is done in such subtle and abstract ways that it accomplishes this complex statement on cycles (both found in nature and the ones we inject into it) and connection. Sometimes it felt like the movie was getting so far ahead of me that I was playing catch up, but each piece fits together soon enough that the more you think about the movie the more fascinating it is.

I mentioned the word abstract above, and that is a good way to describe how the story unfolds. It doesn’t really follow a conventional structure at all, instead opting for this smorgasbord of events where time between shots can shoot swiftly into the future at the bat of an eye. Some of the confusion I get when thinking about the movie, as the significance of a seemingly unrelated section remains unclear to me, did sort of inhibit my enjoyment for a quick spell. However, my interested was immediately renewed once the film was back on track, if it ever was. It is easy to get swept away with it all.

This marks the sophomore effort for writer/director Shane Carruth, whose only previous film was 2004’s time travel story Primer (a movie I haven’t seen as of yet but can’t wait to now). He is building a reputation as a man making challenging films that will not necessarily appeal to most audiences. Even if his films haven’t been breaking out into the mainstream, his talent is one to be reckoned with and I hope he continues to make films that thoroughly fascinate and confuse all the same.

This is one of the best movies I have seen all year. It transcends all expectations from its opening frame to its last. I highly recommend Upstream Color to anyone interested in movies that deviates from norms expected of the genre. If you see it, think about it. Then, see it again if what you think about fascinates you as much as it did me.

4/4

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