Review of Upstream Color (2013) by Coyotemoon722 — 26 Oct 2013

This movie has a lot of mixed reviews. The critics love it because of its esoteric nature, and a lot of viewers hate it for how difficult it is to sit through, how little dialogue there is, and the difficulty of interpretation.

I didn't care for Upstream Color as a film, but I did enjoy it quite immensely as a concept. Carruth chose an interesting method of storytelling where he puts the characters in a foreign space, and uses mostly visual and auditory motifs to explain the story and express the emotions of the characters. The movie contains extremely few bits of dialogue, and this can be off-putting to many viewers.

I feel that this methodology is indeed intriguing, but I don't think it was executed quite as perfect as it could have been. For one, the music can be grating at times, with dull beats and elongated tones. This makes the visual storytelling difficult to bare. Carruth admits to having done most of the music himself, and I think he should have went with a professional on this.

Secondly, although the visuals are somewhat interesting, at times they feel flat, as if the production wasn't quite up to mark. And since this is Carruth's main medium for storytelling in the movie, it lessens the experience if at least somewhat. There are some extremely beautiful scenes, but there are a lot of dull ones to sit through as well. In addition to that, the scenes often drag out, forcing you to flip from one character to the next, over and over until each scene is complete.

And that's why it is difficult to rate this film any higher. There is so little dialogue in the movie, that at times you're painfully waiting for the next scene, but it takes forever to arrive. It's also painful in the regard that you care about these characters, so you're forced to endure their misery that much longer.

The concept of the movie is brilliant. Carruth's Primer was excellent conceptually, and this is no different. The characters are almost other-worldly as a result of their experience, and it really comes through in the storytelling and acting. The story itself is smart, universal, and resonant. And despite the aforementioned misfires, there's a very interesting film that has to at least be seen and understood to be fully appreciated for what it is. And make no mistake, Carruth is breaking new ground on this one both in terms of storytelling and the story itself.

However the story is very difficult to understand if you miss any visual cues, and since there are so many of them, that's easy to do. The movie often becomes schizophrenic, frantically flipping from one character to the next, but showing those characters doing the most mundane of things, all of which are actually important to the story.

To fully understand the film, you really have to be on top of your game and paying close attention to detail. I think ultimately that's what makes this a good film, if not a great one. If you are on top of your game, and you can bare some of the longer pieces with no dialogue, then you are rewarded with a solved mystery that speaks to the human condition. And the film is saturated with theme and symbolism, which is one of the benefits of actually taking part in it, as opposed to reading a synopsis.

I think for me to have fully enjoyed this film things would have had to speed up a bit. There are times, most notably the last half hour of the movie where it just drags on and on, and these bits could have been cut out or shortened dramatically. Though admittedly, this is a new form of storytelling for me, so perhaps my brain simply isn't used to being patient with this type of storytelling.

I would recommend against watching this movie if you're looking for something as engaging as Primer, but are not willing to sit through a quasi-silent film for whatever the run time is. If you don't mind trying something new, and are curious about the untapped genius that is Carruth, there are some precious and beautiful moments to be had here, however cumbersome it was to illuminate them.