Upstream Color Reviews

May represent a milestone in modern indie cinema, or at least a steppingstone between the smart microbudget work signified by star Amy Seimetz and the more grandiose aspirations associated with someone like -- dare I invoke the name? -- Stanley Kubrick.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Very few movies actually invite us in, meet us halfway, or offer us something. Upstream Color does that in such a unique, singular way that it's unlike almost any other movie I've ever seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

It presents us with a glimpse of the vastness of existence, of our inner nature, and of nature without that is as equally dreadful, enveloping, and terrifying as it is beautiful.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Those who require a beating pulse to set the tempo for jigsaw puzzle moviegoing are hereby warned, as Carruth isn't interested in making things easy. He wants to squeeze your mind, not hold your hand.

Full Review | Original Score: B-

It's not designed to stump or baffle but to beckon you into its wondrously chilly gray world. If it takes a few viewings to unlock (most of) its secrets then lucky you; you spent high-quality time you might have wasted on Pain & Gain.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

If Shane Carruth's time-traveling debut Primer was about outthinking what you might do in the future, his second movie, Upstream Color, is about deciphering why you feel the way you do right now.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.4/10

"Upstream Color" is splendid, transcendent weirdness.

Full Review | Original Score: A

I have no idea what it was about, and I can't wait to see it again.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.8/10

I loved it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

My immediate desire when it ended was to stay in my seat and watch it all the way through again.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Swooning, frightening, intoxicating, and a cinematic experience that feels genuinely new.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

...works on its own idiosyncratic wavelength, one that isn't alienating, but isn't quite approachable either.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Its plot isn't particularly complicated, but it is undeniably weird. if you accept the movie on its own terms, you'll feel like you've been pulled into a creepy yet compelling dream.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Shane Carruth continues to grow as a filmmaker even as he remains keen to puzzle and perhaps frustrate. Upstream Color is, above all else, an unforgettable experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

I found it one of the most invigorating and intoxicating movie experiences of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

There's some sort of genius buried within Upstream Color, but it's so enigmatic and obscure that by the time you reach it after digging through its countless layers you'll likely never find your way back again.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

For all its impenetrable possibilities, the most obvious thing one can say about Upstream Color is that it is great.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

Sci-fi might have been too familiar a word, for what may induce a kind of hallucinatory melancholy in its viewers.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Meticulous and abstruse, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color is an idiosyncratic film that invites explication but defies total understanding.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Baffling from beginning to end, but also woozily beautiful.

Full Review