Review- Upstream Color

Directed by: Shane Curruth

Written by: Shane Curruth

Starring: Amy Seimetz, Shane Curruth, Andrew Sensenig

Synopsis: A woman (Amy Seimetz) unwittingly undergoes a series of bizarre experiments, then meets a kindred spirit (Shane Carruth) who may have experienced the same ordeal.

Shane Curruth is brilliant no-name director who ought be doing more movies. His debut was with a low budget science fiction film called Primer in 2004, which has since been known for being unapologetically complex and scientific. His second film, Upstream Color, is an amazing follow up. It's a bit abstract, it's a bit easier to understand, but incredibly beautiful and stylish.

The premise is an interesting one; two people find themselves together after both unknowingly become part of a parasitic worm's life cycle. With such a subject, other directors would make it a horror movie. Shane Curruth takes a different route and makes a movie about breaking the cycles of life, achieving happiness, and people with difficult pasts accepting each other for who they are. It has warmth and beauty and love. It feels like Terrence Malick instead of David Cronenberg. It's the most beautiful film I've seen in a long time.

The film, like Primer, is an intentional puzzle. I'll try to help with a basic interpretation and I'd recommend reading other people's interpretations after watching it; there are three stages in the parasite's life cycle. There is the man who takes the worm from the flowers and gives it to people, which puts them in a hypnotic state, to steal their money. The next is the pig farmer, who takes the worm out of the person's body and into a pig, which allows him to see what the person sees when he touches the pig which has the person's worm, and this inspires him to make music. The third are two women who, after the pig farmer throws dead pigs (or, as seen in the movie, piglets) into a riv.er, collect orchids that turn blue from the parasite-tainted water. At the end of the movie, the two main characters fall in love because they are connected psychically to the parasite and thus to each other, but they are able to break the cycle and kill the pig farmer (most likely because they think he's the one behind it all, when in reality none are aware that they are part of the life cycle and only do what they do for their own personal gain). They, along with the other people who were given the parasite, take care of the pigs at the end. This seem to make them and the pigs happy, which I believe is a big part of the film. Who's happiness is it? The parasites or the people? In my opinion, I think the ending is optimistic and because they broke the cycle the parasites will stop being able to breed, even though they're still all connected because of the parasites inside them. The rest of the film, however, has the parasite controlling the world around them to allow their life cycle to continue. Again, this is a basic interpretation of the events of the film and I believe it does go significantly deeper. Feel free to come up with your own conclusions because, like most films of this type, they're meant to have different interpretations.

If I had any gripes, it would be one piece of music used in the film. Most of soundtrack is beautiful and mesmerizing, but one piece in particular felt repetitive and, quite frankly, annoying. It sounded like the horn of a truck going off continuously. There were also a few moments in which the screen goes black for dramatic effect but they felt like false endings and it makes the movie drag on more than it should. Another issue, this one minor, is that in the beginning one of the characters works at what I thought was some sort of robotics company and there were videos and pictures of CGI robots. I'm on really sure what that was and why it was in the movie, but it was never brought up again. Why did they waste money in the movie's budget for a CGI robot that had nothing to do with the plot and was only in it for seconds? I may be confused on what her actual job was and it's possible tha.t the CGI robot in the film was really some sort of stalk video or something, so they didn't have to pay for it. If they did actually spend money on that though, then it was a pretty big waste.

I recommend Upstream Color for those with the patience to watch a slower paced visually-driven film. If you despised Primer or hate Terrence Malick, this isn't up your ally. But if you're interested in this beautiful movie, it's on Netflix.

8/10