Upstream Color - C

Unrated - 96 minutes

Sensitive but bizarre is sci-fi thriller "Upstream Color"

Shane Carruth and Amy Seimetz

"Upstream Color" is the new low-budget science-fiction thriller that's bizarre, soft-spoken, often fascinating but too detached for it's own good. It's certainly a unique, ambitious effort from director, writer and co-star Shane Carruth, who directed the equally ambitious but more effective 2004 science-fiction drama "Primer" that dealt with time-travel. Kris (Amy Seimetz) is derailed from her life when she is drugged by a small-time thief. But something bigger is going on. She is unknowingly drawn into the life cycle of a presence that permeates the microscopic world. Along the way, she finds another being (Carruth) who is equally consumed by the larger force. The two search urgently for a place of safety within each other as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of their wrecked lives. If it all sounds a little heady and ambiguous, it certainly is, and on that level "Upstream Color" may or may not be for everyone. Much of it, without dialogue, is fascinating, and other times banal and slow-moving. Like many science-fiction efforts, not all of it makes sense, either, but that may be Carruth's point, that life, as it intersects with others, has larger beings we don't fully grasp. "Upstream Color," overall while an ambitious effort that could be appreciated by many, I'm not one of them, and found it intriguing but unsatisfying. Worth a look if you really enjoy science-fiction, but may not be for the mainstream crowd.


Wes's Grade: C