Upstream Color

Writer-director Shane Carruth’s film Upstream Color has been described as a “head-scratching science fiction drama.” That’s a pretty apt description. Carruth also stars in the film and plays Jeff, a guy who falls for Kris (Amy Seimetz) as she’s putting her life back together after a petty thief drugged her after making her ingest some kind of weird bug. The burglary is particularly strange as the guy made Kris sign over all her assets, including whatever equity she had in her house. When she wakes up from the drug-induced stupor, she realizes she has lost everything but with Jeff’s help begins to get her life back in order. With its ominous score and slow sequences, the film is effectively creepy in a Cronenberg kind of way. (Jeff Niesel)