‘Upstream Color’ Trailer: A Warning, Or a Promise?

Posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2012 by Russ Fischer

This is the place where I’m supposed to be able to put the first footage from Shane Carruth‘s second film into some sort of context, but I just can’t do it. The movie is Upstream Color, and it follows Carruth’s 2004 indie sci-fi debut Primer. That ’04 effort quickly became a benchmark in hardcore science fiction, thanks to the very matter of fact manner in which it explored the personal and moral ramifications that might arise if a couple guys had access to a time machine.

The trailer for Upstream Color is gorgeous — expect to hear more than a few references to Kubrick and Malick — but I can’t pretend to have any idea about what it actually tells us about the film. Check it out below. 

I’ve watched that four times, and I still can’t tell you what it is. Reading the synopsis below doesn’t help. And I’m thrilled with that; the few glimpses we’ve had at the film so far have only increased my interest in the movie. Will the picture be brilliant, or inane, or just totally bonkers? I know where my hopes are pinned. To me, this is a promise of things to come, but I expect some audiences will see it as a warning that Upstream Color is not the sort of film they want to deal with.

Apple has the trailer. Upstream Color premieres in January at Sundance, and will have a March 22 release according to the movie info page at Apple.

A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism.