Border

Border (Gräns, 2018) tackles the two most pressing phenomena of our time, trolling and border security.  The film opens with a shaky medium shot where protagonist customs officer Tina is seen looking out from the shore, doubles as her parking lot, at a cargo ship moored at the harbor.  She clumsily picks up a cricket from the dirt and gently puts it on a blade of tall grass, with the car parked she is ready for another day at work.  She is extraordinary ordinary and alarmingly ugly that perhaps not even a mother can love.  I was watching lots of Youtubers opining on IBIS as in in-body image stabilization being the standard of modern filmmaking.  Ha.  It was a bit of a disappointment seeing that opening shot so shaky that any self respecting Youtuber would not approve.

Border is based on a short story by John Ajvide Lindqvist who also pens Let the Right One in.  Both are set in the mystic Nordic Sweden with wacky storylines and even wackier characters who are ostracized by society.  The two stories center on characters that are almost mirror reflections of each other; they are simultaneously the same and yet different.  In Border the woke character is Vore who stays woke and helps Tina woke and discover who she really is, sexually and otherwise.  There is no growth without pain as Tina plays detective at work and her own origin story.  By the end of the film, Tina has transformed.  Instead of gently picking up a cricket and rests it on some landing, she has no qualms of just treating it as food.  The film shocks and awes in its own quiet and subdued way, especially on the sexuality front which is as unpredictable as it can get.  Nothing seems obvious underneath the clothes.  The handheld shaky camera work and the overall art direction seems to suggest documentary and a very much down to earth aesthetic, but the story is just anything but or like the late Lagerfeld says (Border) is very much down to earth but just not this earth.  The movie is rated R.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Again

There are certain movies that are better watched on DVD where commentaries, captions, and replays are almost mandatory,  TTSS (2011) is one of them.  Despite its somewhat un-Hollywood pacing and directing, the DVD is kind of hot and I have to reserve it online and wait for its arrival at a public library near me.  Or it simply reflects how bad the economy is, nobody is buying DVDs (that's me), or people are simply watching it on demand via streaming or pirating?  I have no idea.

The movie is without a doubt based on the novel by John Le Carre.  It makes a few changes here and there, which is expected, but in essence it's still boring and confusing, hence easily confused to be cerebral, or maybe it is, and therefore very Le Carre.  Hong Kong and Czechoslovakia are excised from the film for whatever reason.  And Peter Guilliam turns pink instead of a straight up heterosexual dude in the book.  Rarely do I see a movie with that many ugly looking guys, OKAY, maybe just one, Toby Jones who has the rare talent to make all his co-stars better looking than they really or already are.  A very interesting face if you are diplomatic.  Jones is memorable in the film for all the right reasons, the "what's that shrug for" and the final "walk in the rain in shame and anger" scenes are probably among the best and easily eclipse others'.  John Hurt usually ages well in movies, with the help of make-up and lighting of course, but he definitely looks lumpy here and perhaps that's what the character calls for, a paranoid curmudgeon who is ultimately ousted from the Circus and dies alone in the hospital.  Gary Oldman is a miscast in appearance which I can easily overlook.  You simply can't make the guy look bad.  In the last shot, he is practically a male model rather than the short fat Smiley in ill fitting clothes that's portrayed in the book.  The entire ensemble cast is exceptionally delicious, everybody does his utmost to look serious and seriously paranoid.  One unexpected light moment perhaps is when Mark Strong's character Jim Prideaux shot Bill Haydon, played by Colin Firth who seems to be gay cast ever since A Single Man.  Prideaux sheds a tear which is corny and unexpected, so I found it funny.

If you enjoy nuance performance, subtitles and commentaries, the TTSS DVD will not disappoint.

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25 random things about me

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 24 people to be tagged, plus the person that tagged you (for a total of 25 people tagged in your note). If I tagged you, it's because I think it would be great to know more about you.

To do this, go to "Write Note" on your profile page; paste these instructions in the body of the note; type your 25 random things; tag 25 people by clicking "More Options" at the bottom of the note and fill in the "In This Note" field... then click "Post."

1)  Married

2) Have two boys.

3) I don't shave too often, maybe once a month or so.  Never liked electric shavers.  Always wet shave or no shave.

4) I wear eyeglasses.  I am long sighted in addition to short sighted and having astimatism (read: I am OLD)

5) One of my photographs actually got published in Hong Kong.

6) One of my drawings actually got published in Hong Kong.

7) Both 5 and 6 happened when I was young.  Everything went downhill after I turned 12 or so.

8) Last real book I read "1984."

9) Owned an iBook G3 and thought I was thinking different and cool.  Then it died on me after one year, logic board failure or some shit, got it repaired, then died again.

10) I pay about $7 ~10 for my haircut.  I don't use conditioner.  I don't wash my hair every day, maybe twice a week.  I don't use any hair products except shampoo and a comb.  I don't go to a stylist, I go to a barber.

11) I do shower every day.

12) And change my underwear every day.

13) I wear the same  jeans just about every day and wash them about once a week.

14) I wear size 42 (not my pants size yet, jacket size)

15) I own two Schott 141.

16) I wear Blundstone 550 every day.

17) I like to sharpen my knives.  I like kitchen knives and pans.  They are expensive so I only bought a few like many years ago.  They were honestly made and last forever.

18) I want to buy a Dovo straight razor.

19) I have less than five friends on Facebook.  And one I don't even know personally.

20) I don't IM

21) I don't Photoshop because I don't know how to.  Photoshop is for people who make $300 an hour.

22) I want to get an enlarger to print my own black and white one of these days.

23) I pay $9.75 to develop, proof and scan my 120 films.

24) Using expensive cameras and lenses give me confidence.  I don't have too much confidence.

25) I bought my FE and 50mm f1.4 when I went to Beijing many many years ago.

PS:  the above are pretty random and I try not to censor as best as I can.  I selectively follow the rules.

Originated from Reservation under C&C

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