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UPSTREAM COLORMovie Reviews
Drama about a man and a woman who find themselves entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism that shatters their lives and identities. Cast:Shane Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, Amy Seimetz, Brina Palencia, Juli Erickson, Frank Mosley, Lynn Blackburn, Trey Walpole, Ted Ferguson, Thiago Martins, Ben LeClair, Charles Reynolds, Karen Jagger, Steve Jimenez, Myles McGeeDirector:Shane CarruthRelease Date:April 5, 2013DVD Release:May 7, 2013Length:1 hr 36 min
Upstream Color opened in key cities to very good reviews. • Jeff Shannon wrote in the Seattle Times, "Visually and sonically hypnotic, it's an intensely sensory blend of internal monologue and unsettling mystery, draped over a thin skeleton of plot..." More Reviews Below...
Upstream Color Positive Reviews (33 Reviews, reviews below)
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...defiantly eschews a traditionally linear narrative format; it moves ahead in time but in an elliptical, hypnotic way.... the artistry on display is indisputable, and thrilling."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 659 words, 04/04/13
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: GOOD(cg) "...weaves a vivid emotional texture out of handheld streetscapes and quasi-sci-fi images... an experience that's more unsettling visual poem than movie."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 64 words, 04/05/13
Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a tour-de-force of a science fiction/horror film, conceived and executed with rare sensitivity and intelligence.... glorious... beautifully calibrated and executed..."(See all of Glenn Kenny's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 542 words, 04/04/13
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NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES/CHICAGO/TORONTO (13 Reviews)
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: GOOD "...deeply sincere, elliptical.... a sometimes seductive, sometimes tiresome mélange of ideas that are by turns obvious, hermetic, touching and sweetly dopey."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 773 words, 04/05/13
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...an odd love story... imbued by the spirit of Terrence Malick and David Lynch, but its arena is neither natural beauty nor grotesque otherness."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 179 words, 04/05/13
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...as enigmatic as filmmaking gets... haunting, disturbing.... part offbeat romance, part completely unclassifiable... one-man filmmaking of a remarkable sort."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 743 words, 04/12/13
John Anderson, New York Newsday: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...magnificent.... Carruth taps into something that transcends a need to be told things, and taps into our need, and desire, to feel things."(See all of John Anderson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 288 words, 04/19/13
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: EXCELLENT "...entrancingly beautiful.... I've seen this movie twice and liked it enormously while never being certain of anything.... some movies warrant a leap of faith."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 737 words, 04/01/13
Simon Abrams, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...tantalizes... it's about pattern recognition, but it's also about how a couple's inexplicable attraction is fostered by (shared?) trauma."(See all of Simon Abrams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 604 words, 04/05/13
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...will fascinate book scholars and semioticians.... What really impresses is Shane Carruth's confident navigation of this fast river of ideas..."(See all of Peter Howell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 941 words, 04/12/13
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "...a deliberate exercise in swooning obscurity. You either go with its considerable sensory powers or you scratch a groove on your head."(See all of Geoff Pevere's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 452 words, 04/12/13
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "From a visual standpoint, it's beautifully told, evoking both dreamlike horror and a kind of spiritual wonder.... It's all very confusing, and rapturous."(See all of Michael O'Sullivan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 535 words, 04/19/13
Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a series of puzzles with no answer that achieves that rare aesthetic peak contemporary art seems to eschew with extreme prejudice: The sublime."(See all of Tirdad Derakhshani's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 491 words, 05/03/13
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...cerebral, mournful.... a racing torrent of ideas, beautiful, grotesque, chilling, freaky, defiantly resistant to simplification and endlessly debatable."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 146 words, 05/10/13
Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: OUTSTANDING(cg) "There may be no higher compliment paid to a movie than to say, 'I'd like to see that again.' What to make, then, of a movie you feel as if you need to see again?"(See all of Bill Goodykoontz's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 608 words, 04/26/13
Peter Keough, Boston Globe: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Above all it is seductive; and while I feel compelled to see it again, I don't have high hopes that it will make any more sense."(See all of Peter Keough's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 479 words, 04/12/13
Stephen Whitty, New Jersey Star-Ledger: MODERATE(cg) "...for many audiences, this is just a slightly odd movie that soon becomes incomprehensible, leaving them with nothing but a headache."(See all of Stephen Whitty's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 622 words, 04/05/13
Walter Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle: MODERATE(cg) "Willfully, obstinately difficult... this movie is clearly not for everybody, but it was made with skill and its mysteries are surprisingly hard to shake."(See all of Walter Addiego's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 82 words, 04/12/13
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "Visually and sonically hypnotic, it's an intensely sensory blend of internal monologue and unsettling mystery, draped over a thin skeleton of plot..."(See all of Jeff Shannon's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 315 words, 04/12/13
Marc Mohan, Portland Oregonian: EXCELLENT(cg) "...a bizarre puzzle of a film which confounds and fascinates with a plot that beggars summary.... it practically demands either repeat viewing or total dismissal."(See all of Marc Mohan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 104 words, 01/25/13
Tom Long, Detroit News: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...the way Carruth juxtaposes the known and unknown to build something both richly emotional and oddly logical is uniquely his own."(See all of Tom Long's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 296 words, 04/26/13
Sean O'Connell, Cinema Blend: EXCELLENT(cg) "...a bold, imaginative, poetic and, admittedly, frustrating piece of filmmaking that's always engaging and frequently beautiful.... Carruth really is a talented visual director..."(See all of Sean O'Connell's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 522 words, 04/05/13
Sam Adams, AV Club: OUTSTANDING(cg) "It's not a movie to be solved but pondered.... It's utterly perplexing, and heart-stoppingly beautiful, quite literally overwhelming..."(See all of Sam Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 376 words, 01/22/13
Cynthia Fuchs, Pop Matters: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...contemplates and signifies loss and recovery, absorption and adjustment... focuses on connection and reconnection, changes that may or may not be lasting."(See all of Cynthia Fuchs's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 683 words, 04/18/13
Calum Marsh, Slant: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...moves with such elegance and effortlessness that the act of interpretation, even when seemingly needed, becomes secondary to luxuriating in the design."(See all of Calum Marsh's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,260 words, 03/19/13
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: GOOD "...deeply sincere, elliptical.... a sometimes seductive, sometimes tiresome mélange of ideas that are by turns obvious, hermetic, touching and sweetly dopey."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 773 words, 04/05/13
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...as enigmatic as filmmaking gets... haunting, disturbing.... part offbeat romance, part completely unclassifiable... one-man filmmaking of a remarkable sort."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 743 words, 04/12/13
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon: EXCELLENT "...defiantly pitched in its own idiosyncratic key.... the work of a unique visual stylist and collage artist who's creating obsessive-compulsive allegorical puzzles..."(See all of Andrew O'Hehir's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,170 words, 04/05/13
MOVIE INDUSTRY (4 Reviews)
Justin Chang, Variety: EXCELLENT "...stimulating and hypnotic.... In its intense levels of visual-aural stimulation, the film is at once transcendent and meditative... approachable, for all its mysteries..."(See all of Justin Chang's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 663 words, 01/21/13
Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: EXCELLENT "...combines exceptional technique with a deliberately obscure narrative and meaning.... The experience of watching the film is highly visceral and sensuous..."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 741 words, 01/21/13
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...as enigmatic as filmmaking gets... haunting, disturbing.... part offbeat romance, part completely unclassifiable... one-man filmmaking of a remarkable sort."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 743 words, 04/12/13
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: GOOD "...deeply sincere, elliptical.... a sometimes seductive, sometimes tiresome mélange of ideas that are by turns obvious, hermetic, touching and sweetly dopey."(See all of Manohla Dargis's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 773 words, 04/05/13
15.2 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
Upstream Color's reviews are separated by an average 15.2 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
Upstream Color (33 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:Upstream Color's reviews cover 42.7% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 15,871 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 481 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
Upstream Color Coverage, Volume & Length (33 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 15.2 Hours Before Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
Upstream Color's reviews on average broke 15.2 hours before opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is Upstream Color's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
Upstream Color (33 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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