Monday, 9 September 2013

Upstream Colour (2013, Dir. Shane Carruth, USA) (Cert: 12a/Not Rated) ***


 

 

Starring: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig

 

Kris (Seimetz) is drugged by a man known simply as The Thief (Thiago Martins) who then abducts Kris and hypnotises her whilst the parasite she's drugged with crawls inside of her. Later, The Thief performs surgery on Kris involving a pig. When Kris regains her freedom she has no memory of her abduction and begins an uneasy relationship with a man named Jeff (Carruth) but soon Kris, Jeff and the farmer looking after the pigs (Sensenig) all begin to live mentally in sync with eachother.

 

It's fair to say that Upstream Colour is an acquired taste. Belonging firmly within the world of art cinema, Upstream Colour works on an abstract concept strung together with an almost dream-like flow. As such, its audience is a niche one and it's easy to dismiss the film as being pretentious. Beneath this layer of pretension there is an interesting story, even if it is completely bizarre and the film only gets more intriguing as it goes on. often visually stunning and with an eye towards realism in its performances, Upstream Colour is very artsy (probably too much for its own good) but people who like the more surreal and abstract realms of cinema can find some merit in it.

 

Next time, Toni Servillo plays a writer looking back over his life compared against the backdrop of modern Rome in The Great Beauty.

 

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