Review of Upstream Color (2013) by K Nife C — 16 Apr 2018

Shane Carruth is genetically interlinked to Neil Breen via a pig's orchid maggot-infested brain parasite fantasy projection. I never anticipated writing anything about this movie, so I will try to keep this short. Mr. Carruth has demonstrated in both this and his previous effort Primer that he is sorely lacking in acting chops regardless of his eye behind the camera, and while Upstream Color upstages its predecessor in both color and composition, not even Emmanuel Lubezki could have poetically swooped in and made this an enjoyable experience. Upstream Color has finally shown me what the hell people mean when they say an "art" film is pretentious. Not even Terrence Malick has tried to pull such a f"art"-fest of disjointed, aimlessly pseudo-intellectual sequences out of his ass.

As the movie stands, it is a counterpoint to Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly". It posits that there is a hopeful world beyond psychological discombobulation regardless of blue flower chemicals screwing up your perception. The fact that the drugs seem to be mental performance enhancers that lead you to meet the love of your life while leaving you completely susceptible to suggestion could either be interpreted as a plus or a minus, but judging by the performances herein, the overwhelming consensus would be that loving someone is akin to doping up and losing your mind so you can squander whatever is left of your life with a person who mumbles over your stammering banter while you wallow fetal-positioned in the squalor of each other's broken failures. Damn, that's a pretty accurate take on love now that I think about it.

On the other hand, loving someone might seem like divine providence or even destiny in this upside-down world where you share a brain maggot with pigs. Oh dear God make this providence stop! Not even Godard in all of his drugged out misogynist fantasies could have contrived a more materialistic and pessimistic interpretation of the mechanism of love. But it's pretty because she hugged the cute little pig at the end. Everyone is unfulfilled in the film. Everyone who watches the film is unfulfilled. Art imitates life. Life imitates art. Here: soft focus on the browned chunks of strawberry pop-tart that I vomited onto the rim of my backed up toilet.........It's my latest composition..........I call it "upstream color".