Fiction

Upstream Color

Shane Carruth
USA 2012
96 min
V'13

A man and a 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. As someone who’s said he hates even the idea of a synopsis, Shane Carruth’s goal is to be effective just outside our rational understanding. He wants us not to know but to feel. To watch the haunting, disturbing UPSTREAM COLOR is to feel like you’re inside not one of your own dreams but someone else’s, a dream that’s both compelling and unnerving in ways you can’t put your finger on. Part science-fiction scare movie, part offbeat romance, part completely unclassifiable, this film is also one-man filmmaking of a remarkable sort. Carruth is the film’s writer-director-producer, the cinematographer, the composer of the score, one of the editors and one of the camera operators — as well as being the co-star. The key thing is not that Carruth does all those things, but that he does them well. His film holds us in its grasp because he’s an exceptional visual creator, especially adept at making images that know how to work on our subconscious. (Kenneth Turan)

Credits
  • Amy Seimetz - Kris
  • Shane Carruth - Jeff
  • Andrew Sensenig - Sampler
  • Thiago Martins - Thief
  • Kathy Carruth - Orchid Mother
  • Meredith Burke - Orchid Daughter
  • Shane Carruth
  • Shane Carruth
  • Johnny Marshall
  • David Lowery
  • Shane Carruth
  • Shane Carruth
  • Thomas Walker
ERBP

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