Upstream Color

Upstream Color is the second feature film of Shane Carruth. It boils down to an analysis of a circular chain of events that get thrown off course by the two leads meeting.

It is a hard movie to talk about because a lot of what you see is visual with a strange music behind it. The entire time I was watching it, my attention was held - which is good considering the long swaths of no dialog. I felt this easily could have been an X-Files movie if you only add in a few scenes of Mulder and Scully. A bit of sci-fi meets NCIS is a fair description. The lead actress was very striking inner performance and although Carruth acts, writes and directs - I would suggest he stay behind the camera instead of in front of it as he has an inconsistent delivery.

I give this movie three thumbs up out of four.

Official synopsis:

Kris is derailed from her life when she is drugged by a small-time thief. But something bigger is going on. She is unknowingly drawn into the life cycle of a presence that permeates the microscopic world, moving to nematodes, plant life, livestock, and back again. Along the way, she finds another being—a familiar, who is equally consumed by the larger force. The two search urgently for a place of safety within each other as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of their wrecked lives.

Shane Carruth’s sensuously directed and much anticipated sophomore effort (his feature debut, Primer, won the Sundance Film Festival 2004 Grand Jury Prize) is a truly remarkable film that lies beyond the power of language to communicate while it delivers a cohesive sensory experience. With its muscular cinematic language rooted in the powerful yearnings felt before words can be formed, Upstream Color is an entirely original, mythic, romantic thriller that goes in search of truths that lie just beyond our reach.

Director: Shane Carruth

Screenwriter: Shane Carruth

Producers: Shane Carruth, Casey Gooden, Ben LeClair

Coproducers: Meredith Burke, Toby Halbrooks

Editors: David Lowery, Shane Carruth

Production Designer: Thomas Walker

Cinematographer/Music: Shane Carruth

Principal Cast: Amy Seimetz, Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Thiago Martins

Sweetwater

Sweetwater is simply a movie about revenge with some racism and religion added. As a gimmick for a Sundance premier, old style Mormonism - complete with polygamy - was used.

January Jones gives a flat performance - she did smile sincerely a few times - but generally is not noteworthy other than a topless scene. AND SHE IS THE FEATURED CHARACTER! Ed Harris steals his scenes as a crazy grizzled lawman. We never really know if he is legit or not but he really adds a crazy randomness that definitely helps the movie. Jason Issacs does a great job as well - psychotic prophet seeing women and land.

I gave this movie only one thumb up because of Harris and Issacs. I might give it a higher one but I was under impressed with January Jones' assets - after X-Men: First Class I expected more.

Official synopsis:

2012, 94 minutes, color, U.S.A.

Against the backdrop of the American Old West, newlyweds Miguel and Sarah struggle to make a living cultivating their small patch of land. Soon a much bigger struggle arises as powerful landowner and community preacher Prophet Josiah makes a play for their property. As he launches his diabolical plot to take their land, an eccentric big-city sheriff comes to town. Things soon go from bad to worse, culminating in a jaw-dropping, hell-hath-no-fury showdown.

Sweetwater boldly establishes its own identity while remaining true to the tenets of the western genre. Wonderfully cinematic, this expressive tale is superbly directed by the Miller brothers, who extract strong performances from the ensemble cast. Ed Harris is especially striking in a bravura role as the sheriff. With the magnificent New Mexico countryside as their canvas, the Miller brothers imaginatively stroke their cinematic brush across an intense but humorous film.

Directors: Logan Miller, Noah Miller

Screenwriters: Logan Miller, Noah Miller, Andrew McKenzie, based on a story by Andrew McKenzie

Executive Producers: Trevor Drinkwater, Tucker Moore, Steve Bannon

Producer: Jason Netter

Cinematographer: Brad Shield

Principal Cast: Ed Harris, January Jones, Jason Isaacs, Eduardo Noriega, Jason Aldean, Stephen Root

Uncle B checking in with his reviews

Greetings AICN,

Uncle B(ukkake) here with reviews of two flicks that could not be more distinct. I pray that these reviews be disseminated "to the people" even though both were scribbled under the influence of "several" fireball shots at 11 am this morning. What else can (should) one do in Park City while waiting to see "Upstream Color" at 2:30?!?

"Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is a slow-burning drama from a promising newbie, David Lowery. An early shot in the film, in which the leads, Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara) are lead away in handcuffs following an intense stand-off, is beautifully shot (the camera holds as they are abruptly separated into different police cars) and nicely sets up all of the primary characters in this sad morality tale. David Lowery wisely chose to explore the broken aftereffects following Bob and Ruth's stint as bank robbers. The reasoning behind Bob and Ruth's crime spree is primarily left unexplained (wise decision), although there are moments throughout the movie that provide sufficient exposition and foreshadowing. The movie borrows (sometimes a bit too heavily) from "Badlands," "No Country for Old Men," "Bonnie & Clyde," and "There Will Be Blood," but David Lowery's talent is reflected in the commanding performances from both Rooney Mara and Ben Foster (who steals the show as a sheriff deputy, Patrick Wheeler). Ben Foster continues to surprise me after "The Messenger" and "Here." He turns an otherwise ordinary "law man" role into something quite masterful and not to be missed. Rooney Mara's performance is likewise powerful. She has the tricky task of making the audience connect with a woman who has unabashed criminal instincts (despite clearly loving her daughter). She pulls it off quite flawlessly. Casey Affleck, although left with less screen time than Rooney Mara, continues to select strong material (following Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jesse James) and shares some excellent and telling scenes with both Keith Carradine and Nate Parker. Keith Carradine, playing a surrogate father to both Bob and Ruth, excellently executes a performance that is somehow both paternal and vindictive. The ending, although not entirely unexpected, somehow manages to provide necessary closure and hope. The film was a true find this year.

"Hell Baby" is as outlandish and silly as "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" is poetic. This film is the first feature film directed by the creators of "Reno 911," Robert Garant and Thomas Lennon. Thomas Lennon was present at Midnight at the Egyptian to introduce the movie - and his "Donahue"-like approach to the "question and answer" session afterward (wherein he only "groped" the male questioners) was perhaps the funniest forty-five minutes of material (all improvised) that I have ever witnessed at Sundance. He proudly announced to the crowd that no studio had any "control" over this movie. That lack of "outside influence" was evident and that's not a criticism. "Hell Baby" is an out of control and often times outrageous spoof of horror movies that is funnier in the first thirty minutes than all
four (five?) of the "Scary Movies" combined. Rod Corddry and Leslie Bibb, playing a couple seemingly hit by hard times from the financial crisis, begin the movie by moving into a house that, as proudly boasted by an unwelcome house guest, Keegan Michael Key (in an amazing supporting role), has not had a death in it "for months." The movie has its share of expected gross-out gags. Nonetheless, Garant/Lennon, perhaps in large part to their improvisational training, have always excelled at dissecting language for all of its typical absurdities and the dialogue throughout is absolutely hilarious. There are sequences in this movie involving a naked/frisky senior, chain-smoking exorcists, and an anaconda (don't ask) that are comic gold. Garant and Lennon have managed to craft more laughs per minute (in sequences that really only take place in two locations) than most studio comedies - some of which were actually written by Garant and Lennon. Thomas Lennon apologized profusely for some of these unnamed disasters during the Q and A. This movie is the perfect mea culpa.

-Uncle B

Moar waiting

Waiting for Upstream Color

Mike is awesome - 11am!