Upstream Color Review

I can't put my finger on any one reason, but lately I just haven't had the urge to write about film in any regard. Watch them, sure, despite some blips on the radar from being busy or recently under the weather that aspect hasn't suffered. After a long day of work and a few wonderful hours spent with the little one, I adore the opportunity to put my feet up, take in a film and just let my mind drift away with the sights and sounds of cinema, but then the time came to do a write up and I couldn't even bring myself to turn on the laptop. Just go to sleep, I would tell myself. I can always put something down tomorrow, but when tomorrow arrived the words still didn't.

Maybe I just needed the right film to open the floodgates again.

Last year, when I first screened the Shane Carruth gem Upstream Color, I was still relatively new to the world of abstract cinema. I admired every aspect of the feature yet I couldn't wrap my arms completely around it, I couldn't show it the full love it deserved. Tonight, in my dark and quiet living room as a mild, comforting breeze hit me from every direction, I flipped through the ol' Netflix queue to try to find something to spark my passion again and I quickly scrolled passed this film, only to slow down and head back to it. It just felt right.

Technically nothing has changed since my original viewing. It is a dense, abstract, baffling film that I may not understand any more than I did the first time, yet something intoxicating swept me up tonight. The sights, the sounds, the chemistry between Kris, portrayed beautifully by Amy Seimetz, and Jeff, played by Carruth himself...I couldn't look away. I didn't want to.

At the end of a rather trying and forgettable week that lacked, well, just about everything I hope for when I wake each morning, Upstream Color was there waiting to kick off my weekend and remind me why I used to find such joy in writing about film. For a moment there a few days back I actually asked myself, "Have I lost the passion for it?".

Found it.


5/5