Review of Upstream Color (2013) by Ajones — 01 Dec 2013

I think the most disturbing thing about this site is probably seen in the reaction to movies like this. I could see how this would be a divisive movie. It is not traditional, it feels long (even if it's only 90 minutes), it is oblique, etc. So if this received a number of diverse reviews from critics, that would be understandable. Of course, it hasn't received anything like a diverse reaction. There are currently 27 critic reviews, and not a single one is negative (at least to be judged by the color red). That is odd. Really odd. And I don't think it's unnatural that a lot of users have questioned why that is. There is obviously something that is causing reviewers to give this movie a pass. It should at least be divisive, but not amongst the critics, I guess. I like to maybe believe that it's because critics have seen so many movies that anything different is appreciated even when the different on display is not necessarily good. That said, I think a lot of darker explanations are probably more on point.

I wanted to like this movie. The cinematography and the way a few scenes are pieced together is undoubtedly beautiful. I enjoyed the first 30 minutes. I did not need a standard narrative or any sort of coherent conclusion. At the same time, I'm not interested in the 30 last minutes of agony I saw through before the credits. I was truly struggling not to walk out. It was to that level of pain. It's not that the movie wasn't interesting. It's not that the movie didn't have a few commendable components. But seriously, this was not well done. It evinced almost no storytelling skill. It seemed like a basically untalented storyteller''s attempt to be relevant after he realized he didn't have the talent to tell a story conventionally. That's a guess. I could be wrong. At the same time, I cannot understand how 27 of 27 critics seemed to see a completely (completely!) different film than I did.