[This is a re-post of my review from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.  Upstream Color opens today in limited release.]

With Primer and his latest film Upstream Color, writer-director Shane Carruth has clearly established a unique cinematic voice. With the exception of a few filmmakers, Carruth demands every ounce of his audience’s attention. It’s great to have a filmmaker like Carruth out there who has an unmistakable style and knows how to keep us captivated. But in his films, holding our attention is a trick to get us to invest in solving his characters and story. Carruth hopes that his abstract, dreamlike narrative can hold us in its sway, and that by struggling to follow the plot, we will somehow care about the characters’ problems. Upstream Color is masterful at keeping our attention through its complex storytelling, but it ironically makes its emotions as nebulous as its plotting and characters.

With Primer and his latest film Upstream Color, writer-director Shane Carruth has clearly established a unique cinematic voice.  With the exception of a few filmmakers, Carruth demands every ounce of his audience’s attention.  It’s great to have a filmmaker like Carruth out there who has an unmistakable style and knows how to keep us captivated.  But in his films, holding our attention is a trick to get us to invest in solving his characters and story.  Carruth hopes that his abstract, dreamlike narrative can hold us in its sway, and that by struggling to follow the plot, we will somehow care about the characters’ problems.  Upstream Color is masterful at keeping our attention through its complex storytelling, but it ironically makes its emotions as nebulous as its plotting and characters.

A new trailer has gone online for Shane Carruth‘s Upstream Color.  The film is Carruth’s first since 2004′s Primer, and his new movie carries the enigmatic synopsis, “A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism.”  After watching the trailer, I still have no idea what the plot is about.  I’ve seen Primer three times, and trying to understand the time travel mechanics still creates a barrier between me and the film’s subtext and emotions.  While Upstream Color will probably be just as complicated (if not more so), this new trailer does a good job at playing to the romance and thrills of the story even though the plot remains unclear.  Hopefully, I’ll understand the tagline, “You can change your story’s shape, but the color will always bloom upstream,” after seeing the movie at Sundance.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars Carruth, Amy Seimetz, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins.  Upstream Color opens April 5th.

Among the stellar lineup of films that were announced for the upcoming 2013 Sundance Film Festival was the welcome news that Primer writer/director Shane Carruth’s new film Upstream Color is set to debut at the festival.  Now the first teaser trailer for the follow-up to Carruth’s 2004 time travel pic has been released, and it’s appropriately intriguing.  The short logline we have for Upstream Color describes the story thusly: “A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism.”  This trailer doesn’t really elaborate on the film’s plot, but it does a hell of a job of teasing the wonderfully strange and perplexing world that Carruth has crafted.

Hit the jump to watch the teaser trailer.  The film stars Shane Carruth, Amy Seimetz, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins.  Upstream Color will premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in January, followed by a theatrical release on March 22nd.