Upstream Color (2013)

Sadly Over-hyped

Expected more

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Although I felt the acting, cinematography and score are good, the lack of plot continuity makes it very difficult to access emotionally. I suppose this would be seen as very artistic for the film professional or those who are tired for the sheeple food that Hollywood tends to produce, but in my mind this just goes too far.

I seem to be in the distinct minority who feel that the first third of the movie is weakest. What follows would not be much less abstruse if the whole criminal body-snatcher caper element weren't there. If you're gonna make an existential film, just go for it. After all, Upstream Color doesn't tread any ground that Godard and Fellini didn't shatter a half-century ago.By the time Amy Seimetz has short hair, the film is captivating with its imagery and soundscape. Really, I could rewind to any random point and be thoroughly entertained. Coherent narratives are for sissies.I wish I could've seen this on a full-size theater screen with a great sound system. Even on a home theater system, though, the sound design of this movie is awesome. Who knows, maybe the movie will make sense after a few more viewings..

I decided to give this a watch after seeing a reviewer on YouTube recommending this. The idea is intriguing but the execution didn't really deliver. It's not a bad movie nor a good movie. It's hard to feel for the characters because they lack depth. They maybe suffering from what have happened to them, but it's hard to feel sorry because you don't really know anything about the characters aside from their mental dilemmas. The movie is stylish but it's also bland. The only good thing about this movie is the soundtrack. All in all, i think this is a pretentious movie. It kinda failed to showcase it's intelligence due to shallow characters and bland style of filmmaking.

Short version: Upstream Color is a good-but-flawed, puzzling, poetical, unusual movie. It's not easy to watch or digest, but will give you plenty to think and feel.Users have noted how flawed this movie is while (unkindly- cruelly even) rating it low. Some very good critics (Zacharek among them) have given it lukewarm reviews. There is some truth to what they say. It is hard to follow, artsy-fartsy, and pretentious (as in: intellectual ambition failed, as separate from artsy-fartsiness). How severely to penalize an American movie in 2013 for these three flaws is an open question. For me, not one of these flaws, or all of them together, is as ugly as any one of the flaws we get most often in our movies, whether big-budget or indie or in between. It's not based on a franchise, it's not a vehicle for celebrities, it's not a recycled-story excuse for special effects or tear-jerking, it's not quirky and too cute by half, there's no particular exploitation of sex or violence, and the relatively happy ending is probably too troubling (in my interpretation) to call tacked-on, facile or restorative.Upstream Color is a good, unusual movie with a lot of unusual flaws. Piecing the story together takes place across the entire movie. The characters are the sort of two-dimensional types that are necessary for an allegory, especially one that's puzzling, lyrical, metaphorical and maybe deliberately inscrutable. you might love this movie. You might hate it. You will not have the same old movie experience.