Cinema Blend: "I can tell you, with conviction, that I loved Shane Carruth’s Upstream Color. Explaining why is another story.
Upstream Color marks Carruth’s first directorial effort since his critically acclaimed 2004 drama Primer -- an intelligently constructed sci-fi experiment that, ostensibly, was about the dangers of time travel. And as with Primer, you’ll likely feel compelled to read as many opinion pieces as possible following an Upstream screening, requiring their help to noodle through the clues Carruth deliberately places along his refreshingly twisty narrative."
The film industry flourished in 2013 with some of the excellent films released throughout the year. In comedy, we saw Seth Rogen return with This is the End, whilst Simon Pegg and Nick Frost returned in their tag-team duo for The World’s End. Additionally, we saw Zack Snyder breathe new life into Superman with the Man of Steel, and Martin Scorsese demonstrated his superb directional skills with The Wolf of Wall Street. With a whole host of films to select from, these are what the VGU staff chose as their favorite films of 2013.
TF:
Are you ready?” asks a peripheral figure at the start of Shane Carruth’s second film as writer/director/ producer/ editor/ composer/ star.
Seeing as his first was the dizzyingly complex time-travel classic Primer (2004) and Upstream Colour is even harder to follow – part love story, part biological conspiracy – the , appropriately, is “no.”
This is what we think happens.
After being kidnapped, drugged and implanted with a mysterious organism by the thief (Thiago Martins), traumatised Kris (Amy Seimetz) begins an affair with shell-shocked Jeff (Carruth).
Together, they’re threatened by sinister forces that might be emanating from inside or out, and shady secondary characters such as a foley artist called the Sampler (Andrew Sensenig), who might be an agent of evil, a figment of their imagination, or both. A good proportion of the supporting cast are definitely piglets.
Even if you don’t know what’s going on, you rarely doubt that Carruth knows exactly what he’s doing.
Combining flickering images of man versus nature with a faltering soundtrack, he creates a film of extraordinary fractured beauty.
Clickonline writes: "Artful obfuscation is one thing but when it reaches this level of disjointed scenes and unappealing characterisation, I call codswallop"
