UPSTREAM COLOR (NR) It's best not to act coy when compiling a list of the best movies of the year. So on that note, director/writer/actor Shane Carruth's new movie Upstream Color is already on my best of 2013 list. It's a follow-up to the filmmaker's 2004 indie time travel feature Primer, which captivated and perplexed audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and anyone else lucky enough to see it later. Primer is a good movie. Upstream Color is a genuinely great one.

On a filmmaking level, the new movie is a huge leap forward for Carruth. Where Primer's aesthetic was cramped and a decidedly bare bones affair, Upstream Color is visually expansive (it's shot in widescreen) and filled with resonant imagery that's hard to shake off. Carruth, who handled the cinematography duties as well, strikes a near perfect balance of concrete details—worms rising from the earth, blue orchids sprouting from the gnarled roots of a tree, the crackle of a leaf in the palm of a hand—with more hallucinatory moments where sound and vision meld in sensory overload. It's a mélange of heightened realism and humanistic science fiction, something rare nowadays and unlike anything else in theaters.

Upstream Color's plot is relatively simple, although Carruth's approach and use of symbolism are enigmatic and complex. The opening act is a stunner, coming on like a full-on thriller, but simultaneously weaving us into the narrative's spiraling mystery. A woman, Kris (Amy Seimetz), is kidnapped by a mysterious man (Thiago Martins), who dopes her with hallucinogenic parasitic worms. Kris is eventually cared for by a strange pig farmer (Andrew Sensenig), who also conducts experiments with sound frequencies, and then released to her old life. But Kris' life is now in ruins. In the aftermath of her ordeal, she meets a man, Jeff (Carruth), who may or may not have gone through a similar experience. The two fall in love, but the path to some semblance of happiness is fraught with unease.

Carruth is boldly ambitious and what's so exhilarating is that he's successful at mixing a literal approach to the material with the story's rich use of metaphor. Most filmmakers today either bludgeon the audience with heavy-handed Myth 101 symbolism or they abandon covert readings altogether for fear of alienating the audience. Upstream Color is such a rewarding trip because it's crafted by a filmmaker who still trusts us and rewards our patience.