Upstream Color (5/10)



Upstream Color

Overview

A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the lifecycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.

Metadata
Title Upstream Color
Director Shane Carruth
Director of Photography
Producer Ben LeClair
Runtime 1 h 36 min
Certification NR
Release Date 5 April 2013
Tagline
IMDb Id tt2084989
Homepage

Shane Caruth wrote, directed and acted in his debut movie Primer, which is quite an intriguing film. Upstream Color is his second movie, nine years later, which he again wrote, directed and stars in.

The first hour or so the movie goes down various tracks whilst nothing is obvious, nothing is explained, and not a lot is clear as to what is going on and why. This initially makes for an interesting and somewhat suspenseful enigma: it keeps you trying to figure out how things connect and where this might lead.

But it is a slow watch, with uninspired cinematography and a soundtrack which gets increasingly annoying. So after an hour or so you are ready for a tip of the veil of vaguery to be lifted and for an indication that things will start making some sense soon. But if anything it then goes in the opposite direction.

In the end it feels like a collection of semi-connected scenes that provide  puzzle pieces, but at best solving the puzzle results in 1+1=2 -definitely not to any grand insights- and at worst it just falls apart altogether into an abstract mess without any conclusion. Some people will say that’s the point. But by the end the annoying soundtrack just makes you want the pretentiousness to end.

Not an enjoyable movie, and very disappointing after Primer.

Categories: Uncategorised

2 thoughts on “Upstream Color (5/10)”

  1. php link says:

    I must thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this website.
    I’m hoping to view the same high-grade content
    by you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing
    abilities has inspired me to get my very own site now 😉

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.