There are filmmakers who rely on jump scares and fake blood to get under an audience’s skin, and those who believe austere imagery, ominous overtones, and the illusion of the sinister are just as effective. Shane Carruth is of the latter school, and Upstream Color more than proves this.
Now, we’re not going to bore you by trying to explain what Upstream Color is about, if only because entire thesis papers could be written on that particularly slippery subject. If we’re being completely honest, we’d offer that Upstream Color is a film less concerned with what it’s about than what it can make you feel — and there’s seemingly no end to what Carruth can achieve on that particular front.
To that point, we’ll simply say that the film follows a woman (the brilliant Amy Seimetz) who — after being parasitically hypnotized by a thief and having her entire life looted — is left with a ruined future and no memory of what happened. She meets a man (played by Carruth) with a similar story, and as they futilely try to piece together their individual miseries, they stumble upon a truth beyond imagination. What follows is nothing short of a deeply paranoid cinematic assault on the senses that simply has to be experienced to be believed. Just know Upstream Color is a decidedly unnerving experience that will have you scratching your head for days, months, even years after the credits roll.
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