Delayed Reaction: Upstream Color

The Pitch: ...uh...Pass.

Primer is a trippy movie that made my head spin. I owed it to Shane Carruth to see his follow-up, Upstream Color, which came nine years after his debut. It's about what you'd expect. He's not a filmmaker concerned with handholding the audience. I'm not sure exactly what was going on in the film. It managed to keep my interest though.

Since I'm assuming most people haven't even heard of this, I'll make a brief attempt to set it up. A woman is drugged and taken advantage of one night. A stranger messes with her head and pretty much ruins her life. She doesn't recall much about the experience afterwards. Months later, she's drawn to a man who shares a strangely intimate connection with her. He's had a run-in with the same man she did earlier. From there, they must come to terms with what was done to them and decide what their relationship is.

In a lot of ways, this feels like a Terrance Malick film (or at least Tree of Life). It has a stream of consciousness feel. Most of the time, Carruth is keeping the audience at an arm's length. Like Primer, it's a puzzle, but not in the form of a math problem. I probably need to rewatch it to even begin to understand it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend