Director: Shane Carruth
Screenwriter: Shane Carruth
Stars: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thaigo Martins
A weird exposition:
If David Cronenberg, Terence Mallick and David Lynch had a lovechild, his name would be Shane Carruth. "Upstream Color" is the followup to "Primer", his debut film from 2004, and it is the trippiest, creepiest, weirdest and most strangely captivating movie I have seen all year. Not only does it deal with themes such as identity theft, existential chaos, parasitic infections and the organics of life, but it also juggles with more normal themes like revenge, love, and the joy of pig farming. In other words; this film is as indie as anything is likely to get, but if you are into that kind of stuff, I can almost certainly promise you that it will be right up your alley.
A mind-bender in disguise:
Despite being weird in a wide variety of ways, the narrative structure of this film is actually quite simple. We have thirty minutes of buildup where we get to know the main characters and where the main plot devices are introduced, followed by thirty minutes of escalation where things start to pick up and become more exiting, and then finally thirty minutes of confrontation where all the things that took place in the first hour of the film come together to form an ending. This setup might seem very simple, but describing what actually takes place during these three half hour parts without making it sound as if Shane Carruth is absolutely insane, is next to impossible. The story is so unique, so odd and so multi layered that you almost have to see the film for yourself in order to decide what it actually is about, but because this is a film review, I am going to try to summarise it shortly in as understandable a format as possible:
Kris is drugged with some sort of parasite that makes her loose control of her body. She basically becomes a zombie that follows any and all orders given to her without question, and whilst she is in this hypnotized state, she is manipulated into handing everything that she owns over to the guy who drugged her. When she finally snaps out of her coma a few days later with no memory of what has happened, her life slowly starts to fall apart. She has no money, no job, no house and almost no possessions, and consequently falls into a deep depression as a result of having her identity stolen. Kris eventually meets another person who seems to be suffering from some of the same mental problems as herself, and when the two of them fall for each other and start digging into their seemingly identical pasts, a string of very odd yet strangely enchanting events take place.
95 % style and 5 % substance:
As much as people who have seen it tend to talk about some of the more trippy story elements of the plot, I personally believe that the most interesting thing about Upstream Color is its moods and its atmosphere. There is a subplot in the movie about a guy who basically does nothing but walking around in a forest recording the sounds of the world, and even though I have a very hard time figuring out what it meant to the story, this was the single most artistically satisfying segments I have seen in a movie all year. If you are into these dreamy themes and very loosely explained plots, Upstream Color is just the movie that you have been looking for, but if you prefer carefully composed storylines that make perfect sense and leave you feeling as if you understood every perfectly, you are going to hate it with every fiber of your being. I know that I am not doing a very good job of explaining anything specific about this film at all, but trying to do so would be a waste of effort anyway. It simply is way too floaty.
The bottom line:
Given the flimsy nature of Upstream Color's content, this blog post is not as much a review of the movie as it is a recommendation for you to go see it. The movie benefits from some of the most beautiful camerawork and sound design I have seen/heard in 2013, and its floaty and almost dreamlike chain of events makes for one of the most engrossing film experiences of the year as well. It is a very artsy film with a very niche target audience however, and it is not very hard to tell that Shane Carruth does not give a damn about normal Hollywood rules and stipulations. I would be lying if I said Upstream Color was an easy movie to watch and keep up with, but no matter how you twist and turn it, it is undeniably one of the most fascinating and unique films of the year, and I have a feeling that we will be talking about for many years to come.
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