Upstream Color - 2013

This is one of the best films I have seen recently.  I'm not going to say too much about it, because I really, really want you, your friends, your parents, everyone, to see this film.

The plot is loosely about a man a woman who, sharing more in common than might be on the surface, bond together and try to reassemble their lives.  The way they are connected to is only hinted at throughout the film, and I'm intentionally leaving it out because I really want any readers of this column to go see the movie for themselves.

The essential thing to grasp about this film is that is not a paint-by-numbers, ordinary film. The type of film this is intrigues, inspires, challenges.  It makes you think, it gives you parts of a story and infects the ideas in your head and makes you fill in the rest.  This is the kind of film that makes me fall back in love with movies.

When I was younger, I wanted to direct movies.  I was inspired by great films that I saw and I wanted to create my own unique vision.  The more Hollywood creations I saw, the less inspired I became however.  Where are the great, thinking man's films?  I saw action blockbuster again and again, and cheap remake after cheap remake.  I began to decide if this what people wanted to see, if this was where Hollywood saw the future, I didn't want to be a part of it.

Seeing a movie like Upstream Color reminds me of wonderful films like The Seventh Seal, movies that really made one contemplate themselves, and meaning.
Upstream Color is made by Primer director Shane Carruth, the man has a very focused and abstract mind, and his movies reflect not just brilliance but an entire philosophy. 

Definitely A+, 100%, two thumbs up, whatever the rating system is it gets full marks.

Please watch it with an open mind.