I have no idea how Shane Carruth did it, but this was one of the most interesting films I've seen in quite some time. I actually had to put it on pause once or twice just to breathe, and for that reason I am grateful that I could watch it at home rather than a theater. The story can be a bit overwhelming at times, but my takeaway feeling is one of awe and amazement. Would I watch it again? ummmm. Most likely not. Am I glad that I DID watch it? Definitely. An amazing piece of work that redefines dimensions, parallels and just how hard it can be to come together.

I'm not averse to complicated films but I didn't understand this. It dealt with drugs (a hallucinogenic worm inserted in the bloodstream). A woman seems to be brainwashed under this spell. She meets a man, not sure if this was planned or random. He is also lost but it's unclear if he's also had the worm. There is a man who looks like a geography teacher behind all this. He's also a pig farmer and some kind of sound engineer. Somehow the lives of the man and woman (Chris and Jeff) are linked to what's happening to the pigs. They figure this out using random memory fragments. They find the farm and Chris murders the pig farmer and finds his scientific research files. At the end Chris and Jeff and others who have had the worm (all linked by the book 'Walden' for some reason) come to the farm, find the pig linked to them, set them free, paint the walls... cuddle the pigs. One of the more annoying things in this pretensions film were voice overs in scenes when the characters were taking, voice overs of their own speech. There were some nice scenes on a train which were reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine, in fact this film made me want to watch that one again. Really not worth the time.

This is not a sci-fi movie, even if it might seem like one at first. It's an art-house metaphor that lasts an hour and a half. And just like always, the metaphor is about society and human condition. That's it. If you want to see an exciting science fiction movie, look elsewhere. In fact, if you want to see a movie, look elsewhere.There is no coherent story here, and in the end all we have is a collection of individual scenes and moments that often fail to connect. Oh, and of course "the message", which is hammered to your head in the last couple of minutes. It's a weird dissonant feeling to watch 90 minutes of artsy expression just to witness the movie break out the hammer anyway. It's not conventional in its bluntness, but certainly the art-house version of blunt. I felt cheated.There is some actually effective artistic expression in this movie, but most of it is needless, gimmicky and pretentious. One example is the way that a conversational scene is sometimes handled. People talk and the audio is normal, but the picture cuts to the same people in different places, many times, again and again until the conversation is over. If you do that for no reason, especially if it's more than once, I start to call bullshit. This is especially frustrating because there is very little dialogue in the first place. Expression and cinematic language is one thing, but going for artsy gimmicks when you don't have anything to say is another. This should have been a short film. I'm almost sure it was a very short story at first, but for some reason Shane Carruth had to go overboard. This movie reeks of artificial prolongation. Message over the medium.It's a shame, because it's clear that Carruth has got a good filmmaker in him. At times the cinematography is very beautiful, some little moments here and there are very effective and even disturbing - in a way you don't see in Hollywood movies - and even the otherwise tiring (because it never went away) soundtrack had something to it. Some connections in the otherwise convoluted and abstract story were smart. I also have to admit that I'm frustrated right now, writing this review. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have been invested in the movie for even one second, so at some points I actually did care.The actors are mostly fine. Low-key and natural, in this movie's sense of natural. No bad performances, but then again - I wouldn't know if this wasn't the case, because there are no real characters. People have barely names or any characteristics. Because it's not about the characters, it's all about the message, man! To summarize: Even though "Upstream Color" has a few powerful moments and some quality to it, it's ultimately just a frustrating, often pretentious artsy fart. Recommended only for hardcore art-house lovers. And of course hipsters, and people who want to tease their hipster friends by complaining about this movie. If you're looking for a gripping, artsy movie that is actually tense and justifies its length, try Denis Villeneuve's "Enemy".

UPSTREAM COLOR contains moments of truly brilliant film-making. Nonetheless, I believe it lacks coherency.The film has been compared many times with Terrence Malick's masterpiece THE TREE OF LIFE. But to watch THE TREE OF LIFE is, admittedly, different in effect. After having seen the film, one does not have to understand it in a conventional sense; one does not have to know what Malick is trying to say – but, a good film critic would, at the very least, realize that Malick was trying to say something. It is doubtful whether a mature film viewer would ever attend a screening of THE TREE OF LIFE and exit the theater with the conviction that everything they had seen was pointless and pretentious.I consider it quite believable, however, that a major critic – e.g. Roger Ebert or J. Hoberman – would find UPSTREAM COLOR to be lightweight in depth, and argue that its ambitions were greater than its satisfactions. It features little character development, partly because its dialogue is sometimes unintelligible. Although Shane Carruth is a master of music-video juxtaposition, and the film's cinematography is striking, the impression that it all leaves, in the hours after viewing, is surprisingly slight – largely because one is not left with the feeling that its events could cohere into one meaningful whole.Though it may have been the most technically intelligent film of 2013, UPSTREAM COLOR ultimately plays like a mere succession of scenes rather than a full-fledged narrative work. There is probably a masterpiece within the conception of this film, but it was not achieved in the final product.I would still like UPSTREAM COLOR to be remembered as a high point for 2013 in movies, albeit on purely cinematic terms. For those who love THE TREE OF LIFE and view it as the finest film of the decade (an opinion with which I agree), note that this is comparable in its film-making style, but not necessarily its depth or emotional effect.