Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Thursday, March 14, 2013
#67 Upstream Color (2013)
The one drawback to being an "independent film" fan is that you at times are subjected to movies that really only one person thought was a good idea. I am convinced that this is the case with Upstream Color and Shane Carruth.
His movie is pretentious and boring. The sci-fi story maybe could have worked as a short story or a fantasy comic book, but the manner in which it is told on the screen makes it unwatchable. The fact that every aspect of the filmmaking process seems to have been carried out by Shane Carruth (writing, directing, producing, acting, camera, sound, music, distribution, marketing), and as he readily admitted to being a control freak over it all, I really have to find him to blame.
From the opening frame, which starts with a highly tense, dramatic soundtrack, has the objective of putting the audience into a heightened sense of emotion from the very beginning before anything has happened. What ever happened to filmmakers actually creating drama and tension with a compelling story line? The film's fans would argue that there is indeed a storyline, to which I ask why is it so poorly portrayed on the screen. There is no dialogue, no characters to root for, no story to gradually reveal itself. I'm not complaining about the far-fetchedness of the main theme of the movie, just the way in which it was turned into a movie.
The tagline for this movie (according to its official facebook page) is "A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism." And it is categorized as a drama, romance.
Romance?!! There is no romance in the story because your protagonist is a zombie. I like Amy Seimetz. I think she was very good in The Off Hours. And here, she doesn't play a bad zombie. And she's actually not bad at retrieving rocks off the bottom of a pool while reciting Thoreau poetry. But, please tell me where is the romance in, Jeff (played by Carruth): "I'm marrying you! OK? I'm... you know, I'm marrying you, like today! We're getting married." Kris: blank stare. ?
By the end, I was just wishing it would be over already. In hindsight, I should have left but the filmmaker was in attendance and we were curious about the Q&A after the screening.
And the climactic scene when the affected people all arrive at the pig farm to what? bond with the pigs...? I couldn't help thinking at this point that at least someone got something good out of the making of this film. Some pig farmer got to have his run-down pig farm painted by a bunch of struggling indie actors and extras. Hey Shane, just had an idea, why don't you use a still of Amy in her business casual reaching down to emotionally pet the pig (as the pig chows down on the pile of feed pellets) in your marketing campaign? I mean, how much more emotional strength could you possibly get than what is contained in that image, you know.
Really? Is this what the movie festival circuit is converting the art of cinema into? I've never actually been to a SXSW film festival or a Sundance Film Festival. I'm just curious. Do all the patrons of these events do as much drugs as the patrons to all the music festivals? It seems to me, that that is the only way that a viewing of this picture could be enjoyed or even tolerated. But kudos to Carruth for cashing in on this phenomenon. Because you know, the "song" "LEAVES EXPANDED MAY BE PREVAILING BLUE MIXED WITH YELLOW OF THE SAND" is so cool. And, it looks like this:
His movie is pretentious and boring. The sci-fi story maybe could have worked as a short story or a fantasy comic book, but the manner in which it is told on the screen makes it unwatchable. The fact that every aspect of the filmmaking process seems to have been carried out by Shane Carruth (writing, directing, producing, acting, camera, sound, music, distribution, marketing), and as he readily admitted to being a control freak over it all, I really have to find him to blame.
From the opening frame, which starts with a highly tense, dramatic soundtrack, has the objective of putting the audience into a heightened sense of emotion from the very beginning before anything has happened. What ever happened to filmmakers actually creating drama and tension with a compelling story line? The film's fans would argue that there is indeed a storyline, to which I ask why is it so poorly portrayed on the screen. There is no dialogue, no characters to root for, no story to gradually reveal itself. I'm not complaining about the far-fetchedness of the main theme of the movie, just the way in which it was turned into a movie.
The tagline for this movie (according to its official facebook page) is "A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism." And it is categorized as a drama, romance.
Romance?!! There is no romance in the story because your protagonist is a zombie. I like Amy Seimetz. I think she was very good in The Off Hours. And here, she doesn't play a bad zombie. And she's actually not bad at retrieving rocks off the bottom of a pool while reciting Thoreau poetry. But, please tell me where is the romance in, Jeff (played by Carruth): "I'm marrying you! OK? I'm... you know, I'm marrying you, like today! We're getting married." Kris: blank stare. ?
By the end, I was just wishing it would be over already. In hindsight, I should have left but the filmmaker was in attendance and we were curious about the Q&A after the screening.
And the climactic scene when the affected people all arrive at the pig farm to what? bond with the pigs...? I couldn't help thinking at this point that at least someone got something good out of the making of this film. Some pig farmer got to have his run-down pig farm painted by a bunch of struggling indie actors and extras. Hey Shane, just had an idea, why don't you use a still of Amy in her business casual reaching down to emotionally pet the pig (as the pig chows down on the pile of feed pellets) in your marketing campaign? I mean, how much more emotional strength could you possibly get than what is contained in that image, you know.
Really? Is this what the movie festival circuit is converting the art of cinema into? I've never actually been to a SXSW film festival or a Sundance Film Festival. I'm just curious. Do all the patrons of these events do as much drugs as the patrons to all the music festivals? It seems to me, that that is the only way that a viewing of this picture could be enjoyed or even tolerated. But kudos to Carruth for cashing in on this phenomenon. Because you know, the "song" "LEAVES EXPANDED MAY BE PREVAILING BLUE MIXED WITH YELLOW OF THE SAND" is so cool. And, it looks like this:
And Ansarr finds it Beautiful at 1:06. And I don't know why I haven't downloaded it on iTunes yet. Oh, but don't you think that "I USED TO WONDER AT THE HALO OF LIGHT AROUND MY SHADOW AND WOULD FANCY MYSELF ONE OF THE ELECT" is such a better track?
Please. The dude admitted he doesn't know very much about music and making music. But you know, that makes it all the more cooler. Only $25 for the vinyl.
He also admitted that he hasn't really been in on the film scene like for the past 6 or 7 years. Like in terms of watching movies. Good thing. We wouldn't want your "vision" to be clouded by anything else going on in the cinema world. Because, you know, your work is just that much more stunningly beautiful.
Please. The dude admitted he doesn't know very much about music and making music. But you know, that makes it all the more cooler. Only $25 for the vinyl.
He also admitted that he hasn't really been in on the film scene like for the past 6 or 7 years. Like in terms of watching movies. Good thing. We wouldn't want your "vision" to be clouded by anything else going on in the cinema world. Because, you know, your work is just that much more stunningly beautiful.
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