This article contains mild spoiler for “borderline”.
After the premiere of “Borderline” in Los Angeles, the directorial debut of the “cocaine bear” horbers Jimmy Warten, the director admitted that when a male singer spends the texts on Madonna’s “Borderline”, suddenly deeply worried. There is confirmation that a social contract has been destroyed. It is sweet and playful to see how a young woman giggles through hyperbolic statements, such as “You just press my love across the border”, but when men do the same, it sounds like a threat. These gender -specific expectations, social contracts and implicit assumptions are Lines From Warden’s Freshman Direction, in which a spunky pop star named Sofia (Samara Weaving) is terrorized in her own house by a delusional fan named Paul (Ray Nicholson) in her own house, who are not only married, but have also been in a relationship for years.
It is easy to laugh at a man like Paul, because despite his undeniable good appearance and his megawatt smile (smilethat he can thank the genetics of his famous father for the provision), he is fair So Period. When we meet Paul for the first time, we will get married in his twisted imagination to marry Sofia will Be what we see at the end of the story. The cold open of the film successfully lets him get into Sofias luxurious mansion, while luckily it is not at home. Take off your shoes on the door, wash in your machines, try out your recording equipment in your private studio and even took a bubble bath in your whirlpool. He drives up in her house like a child that remains in a toy business overnight, and Nicholson’s performance is so damn electrifying that you cannot do any other way than to leave out a giggle, even though he has gained access to the manor house by gaining her security officer, Bells (Eric Dane), who is currently bleeding in the entrance.
“Borderline” has many deliberate moments of cheerfulness because it is A deeply funny writerBut the scaryest thing about his horror comedy is how often they will laugh. Because it is a story that forces the audience too much discomfort, if they don’t laugh, they will definitely lose their minds.
The disadvantage of laughter in view of the danger
It would be easy to confuse “border” as nothing other than a strange, sometimes Screwball comedy with parts of graphic violence that have thrown in for a lot of fun, but Warden’s script is almost fascinating In the way in which spectators play about the characters, and what it leaves to force us to project these assumptions onto them. We learn that Paul experienced a traumatic event during Sofia’s concerts, and it is implied, but never confirmed that this led to it that he had a replacement from reality. But we don’t know much more than that. There is no way to know for us whether this event really broke him or whether it was broken long before. We know that it is when he first appears in the film in front of Sofia’s front door, it is not The first time that he appears up there, since he and her security officer are not only on first name, but also Bell already know that the best procedure is to validate Paul’s false belief systems. He keeps showing us that he is an impressive threat, but nobody seems to take his presence seriously until it is too late. Is this comment on how little we invest in men’s mental health or How bad was the 1990s as a decade in relation to the security of famous women? “Borderline” does not give us simple answers, which some may be able to frustrate, but offers plenty of space for discourse.
It is also easy to root for Sofia immediately, not only because she webles Samara (And everyone loves Samara Weaving!) But also because her existence as a beautiful, blond white woman tends to collect implicit sympathy (Find out more about Missing white woman syndromeIf you are not already familiar). Even after we had learned that Sofia’s newly discovered relationship with an NBA player named Rhodes (who always fails fantastic Jimmie) was originally organized as a publicity -stunt and that it is so rich that she has never felt the need to find out where the circuit breaker is in her own home, we still have roots for her. In every other film, a figure like Sofia would be “unlikely”, but what makes a “borderline” story is that it serves as a memory that there is no perfect victim and even “unlikely” that deserves emotional (and physical) terrorism from a fan like Paul.
“Borderline” enables Nicholson and Weaving to make a festival out of their characters (especially Nicholson), but the script is a comedy of errors that devastates everyone involved. If you are too busy to laugh at the risk that Paul presents, it is no surprise why he can get away as much as he has.
Intelligently undermine the iconography of Madonna and Rodman
The film takes place in “1990-Homing”, and although it does not remember many script aspects of the film that they remember, he is a film from the 1990s outside of aesthetics or the lack of cell phones and the Wi-Fi, the Pauls plans before the start, the thematic core and the subversion of pop culture, in the decades. Sofia and Rhodes are essentially avatars for Madonna and Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman, a man who was famous for the Fifth Avenue in New York City because he signed a wedding dress for his book.
“Borderline” does not forget this legendary moment, but turns it into the head completely into something Strictly speaking Terrible, as if he wanted to look back on everyone who condemned the end of civilization because one of the best rebounders in the NBA history wore a dress in public to say: “No, they fool, THE Is what she should frighten. “And yet because too many people are still too uncomfortable to process a male person in female clothing, they will laugh. Just like the general public probably not of Rodman’s basketball statistics or Rodmans basketball statistics or not remembered The terrible allegations have been against him But Do Remember his preference for wearing “Women’s” Mode “, Borderline” knows exactly how the audience will react and use it for the advantage of the film. To be honest, a large part of the film works like a Rorschach test – the reaction to the horror present says much more about the reactor than the film to record it.
And that’s the power of the film. Admittedly, the pace can sometimes be a bit problematic (especially the beginning) and the logic is less airtight and more “weak windows in the middle west in the middle of winter”, but nothing of this is important if you hand over the world that have created the guards because not everything that changes from a kechericine. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The audience reacts Then Is the reaction of the audience Now. And my god is that it is the spine to have to accept.
The limit is scary because it is not the area of
“Borderline” is a damn funny time in the cinema and offers some pretty fantastic appearances, which, yes, contains a lot of laughs to have them. “Warrior now” star Alba Baptista is a total scene stealer than Penny, a well -disturbed French girl who mainly serves as Harley Quinn for Paul’s Joker. But between every punch line (I lamp when a young girl Paul prescribes to put a priest into a box, and he replies: “We put a pastor in a box. We are Protestants.”) There is the boiling, terrible memory that “border line” is not from the area of
Sure, most people are aware of the terrible tragedies that triggered numbers such as Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, John Lennon and actress Rebecca Schaeffer, but how many people know about the previous ones WWE superstar Sonya Deville (real name Daria Berenato), who was followed by a fan After all, who broke into your house with a knife, plastic zipper, adhesive tape and mucking iron? How many people know this “Icarly” star Miranda Cosgroves Stalker lit fire and shot into her front yard After shot a woman into her neighborhood that looked like her? The general public knows that Miley Cyrus had several stalkers, including one Who was arrested before claiming “It is my mission of my life (you) impregnate?” Or do people only pay attention to these stories when the prominent ends dead?
We were trained to laugh about these miserable “answers” when they hunt the Instagram page of a celebrity with desperate thirst comments and teach women to “simply ignore the trolls”. This is all to say that Jimmy Warden’s film is absolutely terrifying, not only because “Diabolically uncomfortable man administered woman and keeps her (and others) hostage to take a wedding”, a scary concept, but because people like this exist and historically never be taken seriously.
“Borderline” knows that and uses it against his audience. As long as we laugh at the policeman who makes a jazz place, the security officer who tries to eat food that is too hot, only from the microwave, or the adult man who believes that he was in a relationship with a pop star he never met, we will only know what we met until it is too late.
“Borderline” currently plays in limited theaters and is available on VOD.
