"My favorite film romance of the year had no resemblance to any romance I've been witness to onscreen or off."
Grantland
Upstream Color forces you to let go and immerse yourself in their world and the story Carruth has created in a way that you rarely feel compelled to with most contemporary cinema.
Blackbook Mag
"Upstream Color is a stimulating and hypnotic piece of experimental filmmaking."
Variety
"A deeply sincere, elliptical movie."
New York Times
"(…) Upstream Color certainly is something to see if you're into brilliant technique, expressive editing, oblique storytelling, obscuritanist speculative fiction or discovering a significant new actress."
The Hollywood Reporter
"Once you've seen Upstream Color, it's impossible to forget it."
Time Out New York
"Intense and hypnotically powerful."
LA Times
"Thematically rich, layered and hypnotic, Upstream Color is a maddeningly abstract and romantic examination of love."
Indiewire
"Bold, impassionate, ecstatically beautiful...in a class by itself at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival."
Village Voice
"There's never quite been another film like it…Upstream Color reinvents cinema."
In These Times
"Each dense, polyvalent scene spirals around the next, utilizing exquisitely composed soundscapes and imagery to create an emotionally profound experience."
Film Comment
"The ultimate auteur film of the digital age, a liberating marriage of technology, talent and vision."
The Huffington Post
"Carruth is perhaps the first filmmaker whose drama is based in the first-hand experience of relativity."
The New Yorker
"The most overt challenge to filmmaking norms you'll ever find."
AM New York
"Mind-blowing! Plunges audiences into a realm of unknown pleasures."
The Wall Street Journal
"A film of uncommon beauty, haunting mystery and massive obscurity."
The Wrap
"Carruth reminds us that people are still the greatest mystery of all."
Movies.com
"The experience of watching the film remains intensely transportive, resonating long after the credits roll and the lights come up."
Slant Magazine
"Upstream Color is a beautiful, poetic, quietly intense film."
NPR Bullseye
"Another work of genius. One thing is certain: Shane Carruth's name is becoming synonymous with innovative concepts and ideas."
The London Film Review
"Shane Carruth has once again proved himself to be not only a highly capable director, but also a skilled actor, writer, musician, editor and cinematographer. Definitely worth the 8 year wait time."
Ain't It Cool News
"Sundance Surprise: Did One of the Best Movies Ever Made Just Debut in Park City?"
Time Entertainment
"Carruth and his minuscule cast and crew swing for the stars in this brilliant, bewildering sci-fi exploration of humanity's mysterious biological connections.'
Ioncinema
"An outstanding hybrid piece that enchants you on all possible levels, invigorating both the brain and the senses."
Cine Vue