50 Essential Sci-Fi Films of the 21st Century (So Far)

Shane Carruth has written and directed two fantastic science fiction movies in his career, and given that he has only written and directed two films, he’s got a hit rate most filmmakers would envy. One of these is Primer, the well-publicised, micro-budget time travel picture that uses complex terminology, diagrams, and a plot that needs flow charts and Excel spreadsheets to figure out after the fact. The other is Upstream Color.

A cyclical story steeped in mystery, Upstream Color brings together two people - Kris (Amy Seimetz) and Jeff (Shane Carruth) - who have been the victims of a thief who uses a perception-changing larva to control their lives and relieve them of their financial assets and their memory. Now feeling the pains of pigs on a farm who have been implanted with the larva parasite removed from their bodies, Kris and Jeff must wade through a smog of feelings and confusion to uncover the truth.

As if taking everything that he did on Primer and turning it inside out, Carruth progresses Upstream Color at a slow pace, ignoring conventional narrative beats and minimising his dialogue, and prioritising long shots over pacey action, allowing the plot to take its own form in the viewer’s mind. It’s an abstract and emotional meditation of a film, but almost as essential as arthouse sci-fi can be.