My review of Shane Carruth’s enigmatic Upstream Color ended with a statement that it was a film “I’m eager to revisit.” Six months later, the film’s strengths and weaknesses became more apparent.
One such weakness: I remain unconvinced by Carruth’s acting. He’s an impressive director, producer, sound engineer etc … but an average actor.
I described the film as strongly Malickian earlier, but I think that was inaccurate. Malick’s films are about trying and failing to grasp the insubstantial beauty of nature, in one form or another; his camera drifts with vague purpose. Carruth is much more exacting; there’s an arresting economy to the way his film is editing, especially in the early scenes.
That’s to its detriment in those scenes; there’s so much information conveyed that attempting to puzzle out its intricacies distracts from the poetry. Thankfully, once the details of the bugs and hypnosis and such are established, Carruth relaxes and produces some magnetically masterful stuff. In particular, the scene that juxtaposes the Sampler’s recordings and his observations of past victims is just amazing; not only is it visually and aurally gorgeous, the notion of modifying frequencies resonates with the wavelengths of lives through which the Sampler oscillates.
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I think we already talked about this, but Carruth’s performance doesn’t bother me. I think the flaw is in how he wrote his own character. 🙂
Oh. Otherwise I agree with you. 🙂
Plus, you might just have inspired me to watch it a second time. I liked this flick, too.
Good stuff. It definitely holds up 🙂
That was my main weakness with this movie as well. Sure, his directing, editing skills and the way he’s able to frame a story is amazing, but as an actor, somebody different maybe would have done the trick.
Yeah; like, I’m sure the way he plays the role is very deliberate (that sense of weariness and ennui) but it lacks the resonance that a great actor could have brought to the role. It’s far from a terrible performance, but it’s not up to scratch with the film that it’s in.
I adore this movie. It’s raw yet lyrical in its presentation. I’ve seen it twice now and have a much better appreciation for it. Considering the limitations it faced, I still think it works. It had a nice spot on my Top 10 of 2013 list.
Yeah it just missed my top 10 – I think it was 13th for 2013? Great film.
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