Upstream Color and Picture Day, now showing at the Vancity Theatre

Cinephiles ho! A truly remarkable film plays the Vancity Theatre this Sunday, a genuinely unique, visually impressive, moody and beautiful science fiction film (of a sort) called Upstream Color - the newest film  by Shane Carruth, who made the time travel feature Primer a few years ago. Like Primer, there is much about the film that is a puzzlement; in fact, it's almost as if Carruth sets out to foil any attempt to reduce his film to a simple statement of theme or plot. Upstream Color has something to do with mind control, parasitology, mental illness, the tenderness of new relationships, corporate intrigue, ambient soundscape art, voyeurism, pig farming, orchids, Thoreau, hotels, and identity. Formally, it employs techniques like starting a scene showing one character in one location performing one action, then cutting to the same character, at the same time, performing a different (but related) action in a different location - contradictory, overlapping streams of narrative that, I suspect, can never be fully reconciled (unless there's some sort of decoder ring that I was supposed to have received at the door). In addition to the film's highly oblique methodology - and occasional digressions into something approximating conventional narrative filmmaking, that tease you into thinking that everything may yet "make sense" - there is also much Malickian lyricism (often involving said pigs), and some very fragile, very human moments between the film's leads (Carruth himself and an excellent Amy Seimetz). I cannot say I enjoyed the film, exactly - I found its challenges more than a little overwhelming, and could not, at film's end, effectively take stock of what I witnessed. It's the sort of film that rather demands more than one viewing, a prospect I must confess I find a little daunting; not since I attempted Tarkovsky's Mirror some twenty years ago have I felt so left behind by a film. Still, those craving substantial, demanding, singular cinema should definitely catch Upstream Color on screen while they can; it's one of the most striking films I've seen this year, and moments will definitely get under your skin and remain with you...

Double billed with Upstream Color on Sunday, and screening a couple of other times besides, is Picture Day - a charming, engaging film about a young woman striving to negotiate the complex passage between youth and adulthood, filmed in Toronto and starring Tatiana Maslany, a terrific young actress who also appears on the Space Channel's Orphan Black. Everything about Picture Day was likable; my comprehension of the story and theme was around the 100% mark; and I was very glad in retrospect that it was a somewhat "light" experience, given the other film on the bill. I will remember Upstream Color, and I will forget Picture Day, but I must admit that I had a lot more fun watching Picture Day... abuse me, judge me if you must...