Thoughts on: Upstream Color


Shane Carruth shows us that his writing/directing/acting from Primer wasn't just a fluke. Upstream Color is just as impossibly confusing, but it's a different beast altogether. Much more about abstraction than science fiction, it uses gorgeous cinematography and the absolute bare minimum of dialogue to tell enough of the story for the audience’s creativity to really take over. When you metronomically question whether a character is a literal person or a personification of God, you know you've got something special.

In fact you could argue the story is completely irrelevant to experiencing the movie, and is just there for the audience to bask in the surrealism of it all. That’s just as well, because the story itself doesn't seem to hold any higher meaning beyond the cyclicality of life. Unlike Primer, I'm not sure it would be as intellectually stimulating to try to piece together the story. Instead, simply experiencing it once is all that it asks or needs. In closing, an honorary mention to Amy Seimetz for what I can only describe as an ethereal performance. I was captivated.

9/10


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