Upstream Color (2013)

Back in 2004, a guy named Shane Carruth made a little movie called Primer. It wasn’t very widely seen, but those of us who saw it never forgot it. It dealt largely with the question of time travel, from a very accurate and scientific viewpoint (I have been told), and was a joy to puzzle through (Its characters say things like, “I haven’t eaten since later this afternoon.”). Primer was made for about $7,000 and looked it, but Carruth proved to be one of those special garage film-makers, the ones that can dazzle with words and ideas and make the most of what they’ve got. Upstream Color is Carruth’s long-awaited follow-up film and it looks a lot better than Primer did, though it was also made inexpensively. Acting as director, producer, writer, star, photographer, score composer, film editor and sound editor, Carruth continues to have a solid grasp on the creation of his marvelous visions. He is an inspiration to budding artists.

Upstream Color most memorably concerns a small slug which is harvested from a certain plant and used to create a liquid that has mind-altering powers on the user. It can also be used, it seems, as some manner of hypnosis when used correctly. The movie briefly follows a man (Harvester? Dealer? Resourceful Thief?) who puts a woman under the spell of the creature, forcing her through a series of actions in which she ends up handing over all her possessions, even signing over the deed to her house. She wakes up one morning after these events, unaware that they ever happened. We watch in horror as the camera zeroes in on the form of the slug crawling around just beneath the skin of her arm, then her leg. She soon notices it too and goes into hysteria, repeatedly stabbing her limbs. She somehow winds up outside the door of another man (Farmer? Writer? Sound Artist?) who knows just how to remedy the situation. This remedy involves a transfusion with a pig. This all happens in the first ten minutes or so.

The effect caused by watching Upstream Color is perhaps one of cinematic hypnosis. It is so casually disarming, throwing the rules of traditional cinema to the wind. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was said to have caused such a stir that more people were talking about Upstream Color than Sundance. I believe that, for this is a film that must be discussed. The inclination many have to simply dismiss what they don’t understand cannot be used here. All who see it will form ideas and opinions about it. I happen to think of it as a movie about making movies. The pig farmer is Carruth, silently observing those around him, frustratedly trying to create while the elements are against him. Carruth himself appears as a man who starts up a romance with the girl from the opening scenes and their thoughts somehow get jumbled. He starts to believe that her memories are his own, kind of like how Hollywood keeps recycling ideas and passing them off as originals. Maybe I’m right. Maybe I’m wrong. Who cares?

There seems to be a new movement taking place with independent filmmakers, where exactly what can be accomplished with the film medium is questioned and experimented with. I first really noticed it a couple years ago with Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, though these are ideas that have been had since the silent era, if rarely put to practice. If such a movement does exist, it is reaching a notable peak and Shane Carruth is one of its masters. His movies are like magic, exhibiting a unique blend of varied ideas, from science fiction to horror to romance (The idea of using drugs to commit robberies is so great it’s crazy that it hasn’t been used before.). In theory, these movies should never work, but they are impossibly entertaining, thought-provoking and beautiful. Upstream Color demands and deserves the full attention of the viewer, delivering an uncompromising behemoth of cinematic creativity. In his interviews, I have observed that Carruth has something of an ego. Why shouldn’t he? Comparisons to Orson Welles are just.

10/10