I met my Boggart today.
Triple Frontier
Before anyone questions why I am even bothering to write about this movie, I am currently stuck in traffic on a bus ride to Berlin and have nothing else to do. I haven’t watched a lot of movies lately and the reason I chose to click on Triple Frontier a day after it was released on Netflix was simply the nearly annoying amount of advertising on social media and the numerous posters that were displayed all around town. I passed four posters on my way to work for the last two weeks and my office is a 10-minute bus ride away, so yeah.
The cast was intriguing, but nobody involved had suffered my obsessive crush phases before. I had no expectations at all and all I knew about the movie was that it had a pretty cliched “super trained military guys use their skills to their own advantage for once” storyline. Billy Russo says hi.
Major spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.
I started watching it at 11pm, planning on just turning it off after forty minutes or so in order to go to bed at a reasonable time. The movie opens with Charlie Hunnam giving a military “pep talk” in which he tells the tale of him nearly choking someone to death in the cereal aisle of a supermarket because the poor soul refused to move his cart. It wasn’t intended to be funny, but the thought of it is hilarious. Cue Metallica and Oscar Isaacs’ character is on a mission trying to acquire information on a drug lord. It gets messy, there’s a chase scene and he’s most likely fucking the hot informant who conveniently knows that this drug lord is hiding out in the jungle because she’s delivering money to him. And since this narco doesn’t believe in banks “the house is the safe”. Easy target. Oscar Isaac flies back to the States to gather his military buddies. There’s a shockingly bloated Ben Affleck rotting away as a realtor with ex-wife trouble and Pedro Pascal as a pilot with a suspended flying license because of a coke run. The biggest win, however, is casting Garrett Hedlund as Charlie Hunnam’s MMA-fighting brother and probably creating the hottest brother-duo in recent memory. The thirst is real, hoes.
The actual heist started about 40 minutes in. Going in with the mindset of this being the kind of movie with the usual cliche of a successful robbery and the men celebrating in a bar before the credits roll, it seemed a bit odd that there was still one hour and twenty minutes left for a heist. It was a bit draggy and a lot of talk up until this point, but once the heist started, it was too late for me to turn it off. I have to admit, Triple Frontier had one of the best-executed robbing scenes ever. And it gets better: the heist isn’t even the climax of the movie because it turns very grim very quickly.
Avarice is obviously the central theme here, but many other motives are concurrent as well. The fact that these guys ditch their “one murder and one armed robbery” as soon as things go wrong puts the viewer in a dilemma of whether or not to continue rooting for these guys. Instead of trying to portray the characters as undeniable heroes, like many action movies tend to do, J.C. Chandor did not shy away from letting his characters fuck up the entire mission due to greed while still maintaining their professionalism. I highly appreciate this balance between character flaws and rational capacity, something that is mostly left unexplored in cinema. Most of the time when watching a movie, I end up frustrated when fights between characters ensue just for the sake of having something dramatic and then a completely avoidable catastrophe is the consequence. I love how there were many dicey situations and confrontations between the characters, but none of the arguments escalated into dramatic plot devices. Furthermore, despite not having nearly enough time to get into all backstories, these dudes seemed more real than the usual action heroes. We used to have the plot of a perfect “good guy” VS an unmistakable scoundrel. I’m talking about John McClane, Ethan Hunt, James Bond, Jason Bourne and literally any Jason Statham lead character. When people got bored by that set-up a bit more depth was put into protagonists and storylines yet essentially these characters remained the same. Don’t even get me started on the portrayal of (ex-)soldiers. I’m not saying they are glorified but portraying them as straight-up criminals is a sensitive thing. There are many things that make Triple Frontier stand out.
Another thing that comes to mind is the fact that this movie oozed red herrings left and right which made it completely unpredictable and leaving you on the edge of your seat as soon as the heist sequence ends. There were so many factors that were left open for guessing until it eventually got resolved: Does the family come back prematurely? Is the informant gonna betray them? Also, Charlie Hunnam getting shot. In your typical action movie, this would have been a huge deal, but this dude just gets up and never complains about it. What a savage. Similarly, “more men are gonna come looking for you” made me believe that an army was gonna chase after the crew, but that never happened, making it even more refreshing than five guys having to mow down an army.
And then, of course, the biggest surprise: Ben Affleck’s death. Many split reactions to this one, but I think I have to side with the minority who are glad to see him go. Yes, the whole crew betrayed their own values, but I feel like Affleck was the first to do so when he got greedy and refused to stick to the plan AND MISSED THE HARD OUT. Talk about weakness of character. Being aware of his position as a leader, it was irresponsible of him and only after he exhausted his “15-minute-cushion”, did it all just spiral into shit, although of course, this movie is genius enough to leave alternatives open for interpretation. Also, after Affleck’s death, the cast became100% hot. While we’re still at the topic of deaths, I was convinced Garrett Hedlund would die, probably because his character initially reminded me too much of Jack in Four Brothers. You know, the immature young hottie of the bunch that needed telling off when he laughed at a donkey diving down a mountain and would definitely get killed just because filmmakers get a kick out of the biggest eye candy leaving the screen. I was surprised what turn Hedlund’s character had taken by the end of the movie. And have you heard this man sing? Drool.
The bittersweet ending was somewhat predictable but, in a way, satisfying. This just isn’t the type of movie that closes with the crew toasting their victory and Garret Hedlund driving away in a Ferrari. It’s exactly the type of movie that in the end deems the whole operation as meaningless and worse: These guys actually leave not only empty-handed but with a huge loss. Talk about cutting a bad deal. I liked Charlie Hunnam’s little cheeky gesture of handing Oscar Isaac the coordinates of the money’s location, leaving things on a slightly lighter note. Despite the fact that I would watch this cast do anything (and I mean anything – even if it’s just them being stranded during a road trip and waiting for a tow truck. Wait. Especially if they’re on a road trip but stranded and waiting for a tow truck) for the duration of a Lord of the Rings movie, I hope there won’t be a sequel. This movie is a solid stand-alone and should remain as such.
PS: I have now watched this movie three times. You bitches need to catch up. xoxo
My music career probably just peaked…
… if you’re very lax about the definition of “music career” and count “occasionally putting up covers but being way too lazy to do so regularly”.
In August 2017 I posted a cover of Wicked Game on Instagram and I shit you not, two minutes later I had a DM in my inbox. ‘Some guy’ asked me whether I would be up for recording a cover together and since either I’ve made good experiences with befriending complete strangers on the internet or my defense mechanisms against online strangers is just very lousy, I immediately agreed. Coincidentally, at the time we were texting, I was trying out a catchy song I heard on the radio: Your Song by Rita Ora, so we agreed to just cover that. You know how it is when you first meet someone? There’s this awkward atmosphere of not being entirely sure how to assess the other person and the small talk is actually not something you’re interested in. Thank God, Friedemann was just super chill and we got along well istantly. We recorded the song in two or three sessions at his flat and it was the first time for me seeing the possibilities of voice editing and how time-consuming the whole process was! I had a lot of fun working with him – or rather being in awe when watching him work. To this day I still don’t understand how someone with Friedemann’s talent, musical career and expertise voluntarily felt up to doing a project with the pinnacle of inexperience: me. I felt terrible having to sing some lines repeatedly because it just took so many takes and some a lot of tweaking was involved.
We brainstormed a few ideas for the video and decided to do a simple one-take loop cover. Fun fact: by the time we shot the video, the audio was far from done because it consisted of only my vocals and a sloppy piano accompaniment, which meant a lot of improv on Friedemann’s part at the shoot. We looked around his flat what kind of things we could use as instruments and came up with random stuff like the cup song and of course the glass bottles. He later recorded it on his own and the finished product just sounds amazing.
We got really great feedback and we stayed friends and did a couple more songs together, but Your Song was a done deal for us.
Imagine the surprise when in February 2019, one and a half years (!) after we released the song, Friedemann received an E-mail from Glamour. At first, he was sceptical (you know… online scam and whatnot) but his research checked out and he asked (out of the blue) whether I’d be up for a Skype interview with Glamour.
WAIT WHAT???
I knew of the You Sang My Song segment from the magazine and suspected that this was gonna be it, but I didn’t allow myself to give my hopes up too much in case it wasn’t – after all, the e-mail from the producer just said it was gonna be an interview about Rita Ora’s music and how she inspired us.
I remember the day after the e-mail I tried not to think too much about it. I told some producer friends of mine and they were more excited than I was. HAHA. I got home late that day, which was fine because the interviewer was from New York and considering the time difference, 10pm at our place was 4pm in NYC. The interviewer, Friedemann and I had a group call and then she asked to interview us separately. He went up first and when I was waiting for my turn, he wouldn’t spoil anything, so I still had no clue as to what this was about.
Then the call from New York came in. The conversation started with questions like what gave us the idea to cover the song, what’s so special about Rita Ora’s music and how she has inspired us in our own music. To be honest, because the cover was such a random idea, I had to improvise a little bit on the answers. But then the interviewer sent me a link to a video, a reaction video to be exact! Suspicions confirmed! You can judge for yourself how convincing and genuine my reaction was 😉
30 Day Movie Challenge: Part IV
Day 23 – Top 3 actors
Logan Lerman, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hardy
From the top of my head, these three actors have a filmography that I have followed closely and loved. Not that these guys haven’t misstepped into one or two terrible / cringey projects (Percy Jackson, Jupiter Ascending, This Means War), but I couldn’t name anyone with a clean slate of only high-quality award-winning movies. Besides, that’s not necessarily the point. I could write an endless passage about these guys, so let me try to recap the essentials. Evidently, what makes a great actor is their acting ability and each one of them have proven their expertise repeatedly. Here are the performances you definitely need to watch out for:
- Logan Lerman: The Vanishing of Sidney Hall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, 3:10 to Yuma, Fury. (and most likely Indignation, but I haven’t seen that yet)
- Eddie Redmayne: The Theory of Everything, Danish Girl, Fantastic Beasts
- Tom Hardy: Taboo, Legend, No Turning Back / Locke, Warrior (if you listen to more mainstream opinions also The Revenant and Bronson)
I feel like these actors have very little in common aside from their ridiculous talent. While Eddie and Tom are extremely physical actors, in two completely different dimensions, and have therefore tackled physically challenging roles, Logan seems to be the most typecasted as the young, melancholic character, but this will definitely change in the future. I am always eagerly awaiting their newest projects and have watched many of their movies repeatedly. (Pro tip: watch some interviews with these guys, I don’t know how you can’t love Eddie Redmayne afterwards).
Day 24 – A movie nobody expected me to like
(500) Days of Summer
This is about as cliche as it’s gonna get. Anyone disliking romance movies claims this movie as their favourite – including me.
Day 25 – Top 3 actresses
Dakota Fanning, Saoirse Ronan, Felicity Jones
For some reason, this was a pretty straight forward choice. With two of these actresses being my age, I always held a fascination for their talent. One of the five movies that started my whole movie enthusiasm back in 2005 was War of the Worlds with Dakota Fanning. You cannot imagine the excitement when I was at the taping of The Late Late Show with James Corden and she was the guest for that episode! Giving off a little less Hollywood glamour vibes are the other two women from across the pond. Undeniably Saoirse Ronan has become one of the most renowned actresses these days, with so many prestigious awards raining down on her, yet she seems so grounded and approachable. As for Felicity Jones, I love her involvement in the Star Wars franchise. Rogue One is my personal favourite out of all the instalments. The first of her movies I saw was Like Crazy because my best friend asked me to watch it together with him as we were both in long distance relationships back then. The emotionality and relatability she conveyed, immediately landed her in my mental “to watch out for”-list.
- Dakota Fanning: I am Sam, Hounddog, The Alienist
- Saoirse Ronan: The Lovely Bones, The Way Back, Hanna (Lady Bird is very far up on my watchlist)
- Felicity Jones: Like Crazy, The Theory of Everything, Rogue One
Day 26 – A movie from the year I was born
Léon: The Professional
After googling “1994 movies”, I could have gone with that year’s Oscar winners The Lion King, Forrest Gump or Pulp Fiction (which even opened in the week I was born). However, I mentioned a classic Disney movie already, Forrest Gump was a bit too lengthy for my taste when I first saw it ten years ago and I am NOT a fan of Quentin Tarantino. Léon: The Professional is a special movie. Not because it’s phenomenally good, but because I haven’t seen anything like it before. The relationship between Jean Reno’s and Natalie Portman’s characters is so unique, something that I would have loved to see explored more in Hollywood movies.
Day 27 – A movie that gave me nightmares
Dante’s Peak
I am chuckling as I write this, because of the sheer randomness. I don’t actually remember much about the movie but one scene in the movie haunted a few weeks of my childhood (Spoilers, duh): The two boiling corpses in the hot spring. At that time I didn’t know the context of that horrendous scene, let alone the name of the movie. It only mortified me. By accident, I found it while flicking through the television many years later and I had to laugh out loud when I realised how bad it all was. Funny enough, recently I found out that my boyfriend knew the movie too and had his own memory on it: the terribly executed scene of the acid lake. We rewatched both scenes together and it was hilarious.
Day 28 – An award-winning movie that didn’t deserve it
The Shape of Water
I had a hard time for this category too, but rather because of the sheer multitude of titles that I could have posted. Since I’ve ranted about James Cameron already, I decided to go with a rather recent WTF moment, especially because this was the first Academy Awards that I watched live in its entity. Sure, the cinematography of The Shape of Water was pretty too look at, but other than that? Nah. The story was mediocre at best, a sappy “forbidden” romance blablabla. WHAT ABOUT Get Out, Three Billboards or Dunkirk?? I didn’t stay up until five in the morning for this!
Day 29 – A movie during which I fell asleep
The Expandables
I’m not usually one to fall asleep during movies, not at home and even less in the cinema. But The Expendables was just so boring that I dozed off for a while despite the explosions and noise. I think that was the moment of epiphany that these typical macho action flicks with little plot but a bunch of hyper-muscled typecasted actors give very little satisfaction. More recently I fell asleep in the theatre during Mary Poppins Returns and missed a good 15 minutes or so, but this time it might have just been me being tired rather than the movie being bad.
Day 30 – Favourite non-English movie
Good Bye Lenin!
It’s purely coincidental that this turned out to be a German movie and with Daniel Brühl no less. I considered Juste la fin du monde, Jagten and Train to Busan but despite their individual charm, Good Bye Lenin! just stuck with me more than the others. I remember first watching it when I still lived in Indonesia and the whole history of a separated nation was just that: history. That’s probably why the movie seemed more fictional that it actually was. Funny enough, when I moved to East Germany years later, there were many quirks I realised to be true. And Spreewaldgurken were a highlight in itself when I first found them here.
The Rain
The Rain is a 2018 Danish Netflix series with 8 episodes, set in a post-apocalyptic world. The premise is simple. A mysterios virus in the rain wipes out any human that comes in contact with it and we witness the very first outbreak with the Andersen family, who are affiliated with a pharmacological / biotechnological company named Apollon that has conveniently provided bunkers all over Denmark. Simone (Alba August) and her younger brother Rasmus (Lucas Lynggard Tønnesen) are left by themself after their father (Lars Simonsen) sets out to “save the world” and their mother dies. Simone is left to take care of her younger brother, Rasmus . They wait for their father’s return inside the bunker and six years pass – with no sign of him. Running out of food, the siblings decide it’s time to leave the shelter and come across another group of survivours in search for food. They set out together and slowly unravel more mysteries about the virus and Apollon and Rasmus might just be the key to curing everyone.
Spoilers ahead!
Needless to say this sounds familiarly like the same recycled “post-apocalypse through virus” plot but it is carried by a pretty strong cast and I simply love the gloomy forest-y vibes, similarly to German Netflix series Dark. (Side note: Personally I prefer The Rain over Dark, because post-apocalypse >> time travel. The ending of Dark Season 1 potentially prepares a promising continuation, though.)
I’m not a fan of the interhuman drama that unfortunately dominates most shows of this genre (Similar to The Walking Dead or Fear the Walking Dead). Of course the story lives through the interaction between characters but most of the time simple rational decisions are muddied by some kind of emotional attachment and although that might be “realistic” to depict the flaw of human emotion, it makes me want to rip my hair out. When it comes to YOUR survival, would you really hesitate to hurt or even kill a stranger? Would you really help a stranger and risk your own life if there’s no apparent gain from it? Obviously answering these questions with no is easier when you’re not in the situation, but I hate how in many shows the characters who actually dare to kill on sight or don’t falter at doing “immoral” things, are presented as narcissistic macho assholes. It’s the end of the world, ffs, our current societal norms ended with society. On the other hand, my egoistic tendencies and lack of empathy might just be much more pronounced than in other people. Despite eye-rolling romantic relationships between some of the characters (that again lead to extremely stupid decisions), I strongly appreciate the bond between Simone and Rasmus as siblings. Before knowing that there was a 6-year time jump in Episode 1, I was sceptic about the fact that this story would be about a sister taking care of her baby brother who was clueless about everything. I wouldn’t say the two of them are equal in terms of intellect and independence, but the discrepancy is definitely not as wide as between a 10 and a 16 (?) year old, turning their relationship into an appealing aspect of the show. The other characters pale in comparison to the Frederiksens. Not that their stories aren’t interesting, they just seem to be too forced (especially Lea’s story).
I binged this series in two days and could have easily done it in one if I hadn’t been otherwise occupied. I’m very much looking forward to Season 2!
2018 Retrospect
Without a doubt, 2018 has been the greatest year of my adult life.
People say it’s impossible for the ups in life to last long without being interrupted by some kind of down, but they never specified the period of time so I would say 365 days is well within the scope of incessant serenity.
Exactly a year ago I was cramming for my Pathology final exam, one of the (if not the) most feared examinations in our entire 5,5 years of studies. It included dissecting a cat and detecting the cause of death as well as analyzing various pathological conditions and their differential diagnoses. Followed by the nightmare that was Pharmacology and Medication Order in February 2018 did start kind of stressful, but the euphoria after you passed all your exams is simply indescribable. Besides, despite having exams in a bi-weekly rhythm, I did go out and got drunk more than I had during the previous years of university, as well as actually pulling off a random musical project.
The house party we threw after my last exam was E P I C. The 16 people we crammed into our 50 square metre flat are still talking about it today. I travelled around the world with the people I love most, seeing new cities like Budapest, Stockholm and Los Angeles all in a matter of a month.
Unlike my fellow students who either already had a job lined up or directly hunted for a position upon finishing the last exam, I was simply too lazy to start working at 23, so luckily the student office enrolled me for another semester – just so I could keep my status as a student. I signed up for classes I never had the time to take: a French language course, Ballet and Archery (Completely random college sports classes, but I thought it’d be fun). Prior to the French class, I had never been in anything that threw together students of different degrees. The veterinary programme was pretty exclusive: we had our own campus with a canteen and a library and our courses didn’t intersect with anything from other degrees resulting in a rather isolated university life. It took me two years to actually eat lunch at the main canteen in the city or enter the main library. I signed up for these classes not to make friends, I didn’t even expect to interact with anyone farther than the absolutely necessary. All I ever heard about classes with attendees from different degrees was that you maybe tolerate the others for the semester, but never hear from each other ever again after you sit the exam. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I met the most interesting people through my French class and even developed a very unlikely friendship that ultimately resulted in more or less a stable circle of friends in my city – something I never had in Leipzig before. These are people that I would never have approached or started a conversation with but now we’re friends and I still can’t quite wrap my head around it.
My graduation ceremony was in May and my mother flew to Germany for that. She stayed for six weeks and I had worried that that would be too long a period for everything to be peaceful, but even that went smoothly and we repaired some cracks in our relationship. We included a short trip to Prague during that time and she travelled on her own, too which got her off our backs enough to keep going with our own lives. All in all, a pleasant visit.
The summer months were simply bliss. I had never partied and went out as much as I did then. It felt like catching up on all the things German students usually do during their college life: Barbecues in the park, sunbathing and drifting out on a raft on the lake, board game nights and cooking dinner together, museums and philosophical talks, Yoga outside and open-air pools, photo meet-ups and outdoor shootings. In hindsight, it’s quite embarrassing that I hadn’t done any of these things during my studies, on the other hand, I didn’t the other vet students were people I wanted to do these things with. Ultimately, it was voluntary isolation.
A highlight this summer was the highly anticipated Kellerparty at my best friend’s house near Stuttgart. His parents were on vacation and the opportunity was not wasted: We organised a party for around 40 people in the basement. It wasn’t the typical house party, because next to the typical stuff like DJ booth, drinking games and snack table we had tons of little gimmicks and activity stations like mandala painting (yes, you read that right) and the Zwiebelpfanne station where anyone could cook onions if they got hungry. Friends came from all corners of Germany for that party and aside from one neighbourly complaint, everything went smoothly (I might have exaggerated on the alcohol…). The fun thing about the party wasn’t the night itself, but actually, the preparation for it and throwing something in that scale had been a new experience for me as well.
Jakarta was the next chapter of Summer. To my delight, my boyfriend joined me for nearly two weeks. We travelled to Borneo and despite the Orang-Utans and our boat trip, the most memorable thing was the Jellyfish incident that had us both gulping painkillers and even landed my boyfriend in the hospital. When he left for Germany again, I kept myself busy with visiting family members, or at least those that I can stand. I dreaded being alone with my family given the strained relationship I have with some individuals but even that was manageable. I discovered my shining aptitude of giving a cold shoulder and ignoring people living under a roof with me. Honestly, Jakarta no longer feels like home to me, yet it’s obviously not a holiday location either. Flying out of Soekarno-Hatta is always bittersweet, although this time it might have been more bitter than sweet. It felt a bit more final than usual, maybe due to the realisation that I’m losing more and more ties and connectedness with the country’s mentality and what it represents, to the detriment of my family. Nationalists can curse me all they want for that statement, personally, I don’t perceive this as something tragic.
What bothered me more when I returned to Germany was the fact that the semester was ending and extending my enrollment at university was not an option. Impending unemployment seriously gives you indescribable anxiety. Making matters worse is not knowing what you actually want to do. I’m pretty sure veterinary medicine is not my true vocation. At the same time, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do. My job hunt was, admittedly, messy. I sent out letters to practices and clinics as well as to research establishments. Obviously, the positions of clinician, researcher and doctorate student have little in common; that’s how indecisive I was. By chance, a former classmate informed me of a position at the Institute of Veterinary-Anatomy opening up due to a person going on maternity leave. After vexatious affairs with German bureaucracy and permits, I was on board and welcomed into an amicable and supportive team.
The last two months of 2018 I learned the ropes of the basics of laboratory work and not bumping into the glass pane of the laminar flow cabinet with my head. My colleague’s patience and thoroughness in my training deserve a special mention here because my biggest worry happened to be blindingly apparent ignorance and incompetence in the lab environment.
In comparison to the bustling beginning of the year, the setting of winter, Christmas and New Year’s Eve were rather calm and quiet. I spent the holidays with all my favourite humans in Berlin and Stuttgart. We had an astonishingly luscious Christmas dinner and unusually sober pre-NYE nights. I have to say that some dynamics with several people were a bit off, but I’m not worried. Midnight of the 31st I looked down from a vineyard into a cloud of smoke and sparkling lights. Yes, I have a growing hate towards fireworks started by strangers/people I don’t trust and it’s difficult for me to enjoy New Year’s Eve, especially when not drunk.
All things considered, 2018 has been nothing but good to me. Even the objectively unpleasant parts like broken relationships and lost friends, short-term unemployment and neurotoxins didn’t kill me so it’s unreasonable to complain. In the end, it’s all a matter of perspective and I am beyond grateful and blessed for everything that took place this last year.
To new adventures, new highs and new lows, new insights, growth and health in 2019!
Cheers! 🥂
Thuringia & Harz Mountains: In case I go missing…
Thursday morning, 06.12.2018
I tapped my way through a couple of Instagram stories and I came across an interesting enquiry by a photographer I’ve been following. “Who’s up for a road trip to Thuringia and the Harz mountains over the weekend?”.
I’m not sure what I was thinking – most likely nothing at all – but I randomly signed up for it. We texted around a little bit and the photographer told me that he had planned a trip with two other friends, but one of them backed out last minute so that a space freed up. And with no further ado, I packed my backpack.
They’re going to pick me up after work tomorrow and I might have just made a huge mistake. The crux of the matter is, that I have met Tobi only once for a 60 minute shooting in Leipzig and I don’t even know the other guy at all and now I’m going on road trip with them. We haven’t even talked out the details of how and where we’re going to be staying, so I am completely in the dark.
Obviously, I haven’t told my mom, because that’s not a conversation I want to have. (“Hey Ma, I’m going on a roadtrip over the weekend with two guys I know over the internet and haven’t actually met before”).
Anyone who knows me would never in a million years characterize me as spontaneous or trusting, especially when it concerns traveling. In a way this massive breach of character surprises me as well, but this might be the last chance I have at doing reckless things like this before taking on a job next month. Personally, I award this to be one of the pinnacle acts of randomly trusting strangers over the internet. I’m super excited and will update here and on my Instagram along the way! In case I don’t, maybe these guys have turned out to be psychopaths and I’m dead in a ditch.
Check out their profiles on Instagram: @tobi.voe & @cold_harbour_ !
Friday, 07.12.2018
We’re on the road! Tobi made an endorsement deal with Mini Germany and got to take a Mini Countryman for a spin, and the car is awesome! Made a short stop at a gas station to get some snacks. The weather sucks, though, it’s raining cats and dogs but at least the temperature is above 10°C.
Our first photo stop was the Teufelsmauer (Devil’s Wall) in Timmenrode. Luckily it stopped raining and the low hanging clouds had promising picture potential. The rock formation was a little bit underwhelming, to be honest, but we shot some pictures anyway. The guys were super excited about my red jacket contrasting with the scenery.
Photo by @cold_harbour_
Moving on to another part of the Teufelsmauer in Weddersleben, we finally found what we were looking for! Incredibly beautiful view over fields and the overcast sky let through the perfect amount of sunlight. It was extremely windy and we had to hike quite a bit which is why afterwards we were all craving Döner 😅
Photo by @cold_harbour_
We found a Turkish place close by and got some food and had to hurry to the hotel because its reception closed at 6pm. If you’re wondering what kind of hotel serves you only until 6pm, the answer is: German village guesthouses. Because of a slowly crawling truck on the one-lane road, we made it there 6.07 pm – AND NOBODY WAS THERE! When we rang the bell some man buzzed us in through the intercom and we waited for a while. Nothing happened. We contacted the guy again and asked when he’d arrive to hand us our room and his answer was: “Oh, it’s off hours already, I’m not coming in. But if you go to the kitchen there’s a key with the number 12, that’s your room.” I suppose that’s another of level trusting random strangers. We had connecting rooms and for whatever reason ended up watching Ace Ventura before calling a night at 11.
Photo by @cold_harbour_
Thursday, 08.12.2018
We started the day with a really good breakfast buffet and headed towards the Bärenbrucher Teich. The weather did not improve and as we ascended the mountains, snow covered the roadsides already. Without really knowing what would expect us at the “lake”, we hiked around 2,5km in the rain to get there. While the body of water itself wasn’t photogenic in the slightest, the forest around it gave good motives to capture.
At some point we were too soaked and cold and the car provided the warmth we desperately needed. We stopped at the Gustav-Adolf-Stabkirche in Hahnenklee, a church built after the typical Scandinavian architecture. This stop was kind of a fail, since we didn’t get any nice pictures at all. We decided to go to Wernigerode, a town in Saxony-Anhalt, because anything that required hiking would have been too unpleasant. We checked out the game park and later went to get a snack at a fast food joint. The city center is super beautiful and cozy, albeit a bit too crowded due to the Christmas market.
What’s depressing about winter is that it gets dark way too early and with the light eluding us, the reasonable thing to do was to get to our next accomodation, almost 300km south of Wernigerode. I didn’t have to drive, but I can imagine that it did get quite exhausting, winding through the serpentine roads. Since this was such a spontaneous trip, I didn’t even know where were heading, but we stopped in Rudolstadt to buy some groceries that only meant one thing: Our next stop was a very tiny village that didn’t have decent shopping possibilities. And indeed, the holiday apartment was located in Brennersgrün, a place with a population of 150! I don’t think I’ve stayed at a village this small.
We were joined by three other people, all of them photographers / Instagrammers and it was thanks to them that we could stay at one of the marvelous apartments of “FEWO Rennsteig 48”, because they were friends with the owners. After cooking dinner, playing card games and taking a shower we called it a night. My bed stood directly under the roof and I fell asleep hearing the rain splatting on the skylights and the wind howling.
Sunday, 09.12.2018
The ongoing rain threw off our original plans to leave early. To make matters worse, the German weather bureau released severe weather advisory for the day. After another fabulous breakfast, we visited and fed the alpacas that the owners kept as pets. The real adventure began as we ventured into the depths of the Thuringian forest. We hiked to the Ziemestalbrücke, an abandoned railway bridge. We had a lot of fun taking pictures on and around the bridge, the train tracks and the tunnel. I’m really looking forward to the pictures by @tobi.voe, @cold_harbour_, @ronnyfri & @martin.hagenbring .
Now comes a rather annoying experience when you travel in Germany. While other European countries have smoothly transitioned into digitalising and modernising their businesses, apparently some German restaurants in smaller villages have not. We wanted to eat the famous Thüringer Klöße but none of the eateries accepted debit cards! It was simply inexplicable to us, why older people are so averse against electronic cash, when in, for example, the most secluded places of Iceland, cards are the norm. We ended up driving north to Rudolstadt again and found a hotel to eat the Klöße. Talk about priorities!
The drive back to Leipzig was uneventful. I am in awe how this super random trip turned out to be such a great experience especially in terms of getting acquainted to the thus far completely unfamiliar world of Instagram roamers. I do hope I keep in contact with at least some of the people I met over the weekend, although I doubt any deep friendships will ensue, but that is totally fine by me.
Pictures to be uploaded soon! Thanks for stopping by!
30 Day Movie Challenge: Part III
Day 15 – The most underrated movie
3:10 To Yuma
I suffered anxiety just thinking about this category. I’m not an indie movie connoiseur and usually watch pretty mainstream stuff, so I apologize for not putting anything super fancy here. Westerns have always been a difficult genre for me to grasp, I rarely bring myself to watch one and therefore have very little credentials. Despite all that, 3:10 to Yuma by James Mangold became one of my favourites in my teens. If I had to pinpoint one certain aspect to why I repeatedly played this movie, it’s probably the cast. Christian Bale and Russel Crowe are terrific and I discovered my undying love for Logan Lerman. The soundtrack has since accompanied me in various playlists as well. I’m surprised that up until now nobody I’ve met seems to have heard of this movie – but then again most people in my circle are extreme movie amateurs. (SORRY GUYS)
Day 16 – A childhood movie
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music accompanied the first three years of my life. I lived with my grandmother at that time and while I can’t tell you why we loved the movie so much it played over and over again. Come to think of it, it’s a rather odd choice, considering it was released nearly thirty years prior to my birth and has no cultural establishment in Indonesia. Yet I couldn’t think of any better movie to grow up with and share fond memories with my grandmother. She tells this story to everyone who hasn’t heard it: because I slept in her room and she was in charge to get 2 year old fidgety Nadia to bed. We had a goodnight ritual where we recreated the So Long, Farewell scene. Essentially I was Gretl, I would pretend to fall asleep on the stairs (there was a very conveniently placed step in the bedroom anyway) and then my grandmother, taking on the role of Liesl, carried me to bed and tucked me in… – And then I asked to go to the toilet. It’s been at least a decade since I last watched this musical and I think the only appropriate way to do so is in my grandma’s bedroom with her.
Day 17 – Favourite animated movie
Princess Mononoke
There were so many contenders to take the price but ultimately I decided to crown Mononoke hime (Princess Mononoke) by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. I remember first stumbling upon it on German television when I was seven or eight and couldn’t help but thinking how badass the movie was. Only after revisiting Miyazaki’s work at an older age, did I unravel the actual depth of the movie, especially concerning the environment and coexistence between humans and nature.
Day 18 – A movie I surprisingly enjoyed
How to be Single
I’ve put off filling in this category, because I was too indecisive about what to write here. I’m a very predictable and picky person when it comes to liking movies: I stick to certain genres and rarely wander out of the box and if I do, I’d most likely rant about what a terrible idea that was. I have an internet acquaintance who relentlessly praised How to be Single online, and some time later it came out on Netflix so I gave it a go. This movie had really bad cards: It looks like a typical RomCom, Dakota Johnson was such an unattratictive leading lady given her history of 50 Shades and I consider Rebel Wilson to be rigorously annoying. Yet for some reason the movie had a flow to it that made it quite enjoyable to watch. I no longer recall my own emotional state during that time; maybe I was in need of a cheesy, light movie and that factored into my postive attitude.
Day 19 – Favourite war movie
Black Hawk Down
As a typical Millenial war is a topic that is confined between the pages of our history books. War movies, although often glorifying one side in order to establish a certain protagonist-antagonist foundation, can be used as a reminder of the horrors of war and often the futility of it. I’ve never referred to myself as a pacifist, but I guess I do believe that everything can be solved by peaceful methods – if humans weren’t as shitty as they are. (But that’s a whole different topic). Looking at the variety of war movies I have seen, the inclination is towards stories of World War II as opposed to the Vietnam war or World War I. Yes, Black Hawk Down is defnitely not set during that era, but maybe the visualisation of modern warfare was what struck me the most. There is a certain contemporariness to it that makes it all the more impactful while, in my humble opinion, still more gripping and superiour to more recent movies like The Hurt Locker or Sand Castle. The cast is absolutely formidable and Hans Zimmer’s score is on point. Definitely not to be missed!
Day 20 – Visually most striking movie
Isle of Dogs
The other contender for this category couldn’t be any more different than Isle of Dogs. I considered putting The Revenant here because Alejandro González Iñárritu’s cinematography is indisputably striking. However, when I sat in the cinema for Isle of Dogs I remember literally going WOW at Wes Anderson’s style. I’ve been acquainted with his work for the past decade, but I must admit that this was the first movie of his that I saw in theatres and it was an absolutely brilliant experience.
Day 21 – Top 3 directors
There’s really no easy way to answer if you are considering a director’s entire filmography in order for him to become a favourite. One thing is for sure: I absolutely love Christopher Nolan‘s and Wes Anderson‘s work as a whole, both their oeuvres with a recognition value and a strong individual style. The third spot is harder to fill, because I don’t necessarily remember any more directors whose complete body of work blows me away; usually there are a handful of enjoyable movies and the rest are rather unmemorable or just didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. Take Martin Scorsese for example: I’ve mentioned Silence in this challenge and what an impact it had on me, yet his collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio (although very well directed) left me rather unmoved. The same goes for Ridley Scott, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Zemeckis or Bong Joon-ho, each of them having movies and a style I deeply admire, but definitely not their whole work. A complete different approach to defining a favourite is of course the consistency in an individual style and in this case directors like Tim Burton deserve a massive amount of appreciation. Lastly, let’s not forget to mention first-time directors like Neill Blomkamp or Wes Ball mount a more than decent production, leaving a lot of room for the future. Tl;dr ⏩ Chris Nolan, Wes Anderson and one of the others – I can’t decide.
Day 22 – Weirdest movie I’ve ever seen
Wrong
Without a doubt the most peculiar movie I have ever seen, because it just throws in so many random details into an already bizarre plot. I’m honestly undecided whether all the oddities are some kind of metaphor or whether Quentin Dupieux just wanted to troll his viewers. Wrong has a similar vibe to The Lobster by Giorgos Lanthimos but it is missing a golden thread which gave me the feeling that it just layered random motives over another. It’s enjoyable and you’ll be going WTF all the way through, however if you ever watch it, let me know so we can discuss!
SEE THE REST IN PART IV !!!
Day 23 – Top 3 actors
Day 24 – A movie nobody expected me to like
Day 25 – Top 3 actresses
Day 26 – A movie from the year I was born
Day 27 – A movie that gave me nightmares
Day 28 – An award-winning movie that didn’t deserve it
Day 29 – A movie during which I fell asleep
Day 30 – Favourite non-English movie
Is the violence in our nature just the image of our maker?
Rise Against – The Violence
violence
30 Day Movie Challenge: Part II
Day 08 – A movie that put me in deep thoughts
Silence
Matt Zoller Seitz from RogerEbert.com articulated it perfectly: “This is not the sort of film you ‘like’ or ‘don’t like.’ It’s a film that you experience and then live with.” Writing about this movie faces me with just as much contemplation as when I first saw its credits roll. It’s a story about unconditional faith in a place filled with doubt and persecution; a place not at all so different than some parts of the world today, without many of us ever noticing. Admittedly, I had never heard or thought about the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan, making Silence an eye-opening movie, a rarity among the contemporary excess of Superhero movies and Romcoms. This was one of the gems that I had to research and look into directly after it ended. As a rather sceptical Christian, the themes of Martin Scorsese’s work hit very close to home and stirred personal questions as well as ineffable admiration towards people with steadfastness in their faith, even when it may no longer look like it from the outside. Father Rodrigues’ journey is a painful one to watch, even more harrowing than the realisation that this movie got snubbed at the 2017 Academy Awards. And it got snubbed HARD. Martin Scorsese would have deserved an Oscar, not to mention Andrew Garfield. Instead they had La La Land in the run for Best Picture. What. A. Joke.
Day 09 – My favourite movie from my favourite genre
Snowpiercer
In case I hadn’t mentioned it often enough, I have a soft spot for (post-apocalyptic) dystopian fiction. People are always perplexed at the specificity of the answer when I’m asked about my favourite genre, both in cinema as well as literature. Unfortunately, most dystopian stories don’t translate very well on screen, because the most interesting aspects, their politics, the government and society are rarely merited their deserved screen time for the sake of the characters and the plot. Snowpiercer is different. Aside from an extensive elaboration on the workings of the Great Engine, it has a classical dystopian arc of rebellion and the ultimate goal of overthrowing the system. What makes this movie unique is the combination of a sophisticated dystopian regime and R-rated action that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Up until Snowpiercer, R-rated dystopias mostly focused on fights, deaths and gore without regarding the deeper sense of the system (i.e. Death Race, Hotel Artemis, Battle Royale and many more). I highly appreciate the intricate synergy of visual delights and intellectual challenge, so if you know more movies like Snowpiercer let me know ASAP!!!
Day 10 – A movie where a character has a job I want
Fantastic Beasts and where to find them
Veterinary medicine comes pretty close, but it’s still not magizoology. Although deeply envious of Newt Scamander, I can’t help but loving his character in general. If the Wizarding World were real, I’d take going on an expedition to find magical creatures with Newt over being Harry Potter’s classmate any day.
Day 11 – My favourite book adaptation
Harry Potter (and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Out of the eight Potter movies, many agree with me that The Prisoner of Azkaban was the best of the bunch. I can’t exactly say what makes it superior to the rest; it may be Alfonso Cuaron at the helm, the fact that they ditched the rather “children-friendly” style or because the story itself starts to pick up. In any case, shit got real in this movie and set the bar high for the rest of the series. Although the movie saga disagrees with some hardcore book fans, I find the overall adaptation a success. Sure, a lot of details and gags were left out (Peeves, anyone?) but the practicability of translating page to screen has to taken into consideration as well and a 4-hour movie isn’t practical, even though I definitely wouldn’t complain about that.
Day 12 – The best superhero movie
Daredevil
Before you lynch me for choosing Daredevil and remember the 2003 cringey Ben Affleck flick, call me out for being a cheater. Yes, Netflix series don’t belong in a movie challenge but no Hollywood production has ever come close to the ingeniuty of this Daredevil version. I cannot recall what enticed me to start the series in the first place; maybe it was divine intervention to lead me to one of the best cinematic experiences ever. Unlike the CGI-driven, blockbuster action Marvel Cinematic Universe or other superhero movies these days, Daredevil relies on strong character development. Superhero story arcs proof to be repetitive and oftentimes fall into a boring sob story. Matt Murdock actually follows the typical “I’m an underprivileged, even handicapped, orphan that has special skills and made something out of myself to fight for justice” story and if you put it this way, that does sound terribly dull. Yet Charlie Cox’ portrayal of Matt makes him so likeable and the religious themes that establish his moral struggle, especially in Season 3, are an interesting take. Also, he’s ridiculously hot. Daredevil creates suspense through a solid story instead of explosions, car chase scenes or alien invasions. This doesn’t mean that the stunt team was out of a job because they have created the most intense fight sequences I have ever seen with the renowned one-take hallway fights. I am still in awe about the close to 11 minute (!!!) one-take prison escape that is simply too good to be true. Hopefully, Season 4 will grace the Netflix collection at some point, because not renewing Daredevil would be an even dumber move than cancelling Sense 8.
Day 13 – A movie I wish I saw in theaters
Mad Max: Fury Road
Perhaps another odd choice for something I would have loved to see on the big screen, but excluding everything released before my birth and unknown movies that didn’t hit the theaters (in Indonesia) Mad Max: Fury Road is the one I could kick myself for not bothering to buy tickets for. Not sure how I missed it in the first place, because Tom Hardy and post-apocalyptic wastelands are what I live for. I ended up watching it on a 12-hour flight over the Indian Ocean. Despite the 720p resolution on an eight inch screen the movie was still gripping as fuck and a visual treat. I immediately felt like going to the Burning Man afterwards. I watched the movie twice more in the following two weeks and loved it every time. Lesson learned: I’ll be the first in line for tickets when Mad Max: The Wasteland hits theatres.
Day 14 – The most overrated movie
Avatar
A close race between Avatar and Titanic: James Cameron takes home the price of most overrated director in any case. I don’t know why everybody loves this movie, the plot is cheesy as fuck, the gist stolen from Pocahontas, the acting mediocre at best. Commend the CGI and visual effects all you want, I walked out of the theatre with a headache after the 3D screening. And no, I am not usually sensitive to 3D. It may be a cinematic breakthrough or whatever, but it left me less than impressed. Equally unnecessary is the production of the sequels, no doubt a farce to grab more cash from this weary universe.
so nad amused 