Last weekend movies...

I think I should change a piece of the title of this quasi-periodic post to last two months movies or something that reflects the elapsed period of time from one to another. Anyway, it has been a busy time finishing a paper and mending another for the next round of review but Lyx and I have managed to watch some movies on these weekends and I have cooled down as well watching some alone. As always whenever I get behind, just the title and a few words...

1. Cashback, *****
   Some of my all time favorites are English films and now this one just got into my list. Surreal, bizarre, illogical, and amazingly awesome visual storytelling. Why are you still here? Go for it!


2. Let me in, ***
   I was fascinated by Lindqvist novel "lat den ratte komma in." So fascinated that I am still trying to get the one about zombies and Stockholm. This is the American movie based on the book. In general, it is well done and has the dark feeling of the novel. It tells almost all the stories from the book with some concessions. While the stories doesn't patch together as tightly as in the book, the movie does not do bad. Hitta pa Svensk filmen!


3. Tangled, ***
   I have been a fan of recent animated films. The CGI mastering has really caught my eye. This retelling of Rapunzel is not the exception. O the fire and the water simulations! Awesome! Also, nice storytelling, lovely sidekicks (a horse than acts like a dog and a chameleon). Disney delivers.


4. Tron Legacy, ***
   Talking about CGI technology, rejuvenating Jeff Bridges is an awesome feat! I guess the film has the feeling of the original Tron. I cannot really remember as I was like 8yo. when it came to the nearest silver screen. I really didn't like the storytelling, it is more like a patch work than a continuous narrative.


5. Grown Ups, ***
   Laughed myself to the ground... What else can be done with this crew? By the way, I'm so bad at recognizing actors that I was telling Lyx "Chris Rock would be awesome for this character," of course she was fast enough to say "Love, that is Chris Rock."
   


6. Napoleon Dynamite, ***
   Obnoxious, dull, boring. Awesome way to tell the story! Very good moves!


7. Casino Jack, **
   Another film based on a true story about the shadowy political world. Don't get me wrong on the stars, Kevin Spacey plays a great role but that's it all.
   


8. The Social Network, **
   Another film based on a true story. So I guess this is one of I'm the good guy, you are the bad guy kinda movies.


9. Due Date, **
   Really, one star is due to Robert Downey Jr. Cheesy.


10. The Green Hornet, *
    I watched the B&W, as far as I remember, Green Hornet with Bruce Lee. Those were the awesome antiheroes. The Green Hornet and Kato have been rendered retarded in the current version.
    


11. Unstoppable, *
    Another film based on a true story. Really?

While January's weekends were spent reading about condensed matter physics, I decided to quit that and watch Castle, a tv series starring Nathan Fillon, the old captain from The Serenity a Firefly class space vessel and cult science fiction phenomenon brought to our tv sets by master comic/tv/musical/film writer Joss Whedon. I have had this writing project in my head for a few months. It deals with portraying some psychopath behavior of characters triggered by everyday events that show up in the Mexican news or that come from personal or friend's experiences. I was looking for something that can give me a feeling on this kind of pulp fiction without being pulp fiction. Enter Castle! It is the story of a blocked mystery writer, Richard Castle played by Fillon, turned police attaché in order to be close to his new inspiration muse. It is a must! So far the first two seasons are great.

The Damned

I have always wanted to sit down and write some story larger than a couple of pages. At first, I wanted it to be something scifi or fantastic; but then the drug war in Mexico broke and there were enough stories running in the papers and tv that seemed out of an alternate universe. That's when The Damned came to my mind.

The Damned: Someone, are my socio/psychopath profiling notes on possible characters. They are presented as is. As a monologue taken from notes from an investigative reporter. They will all be first working draft, whatever comes to my mind out of the news I have digested from the news outlets or the stories I have lived or the stories that my friends have lived. No polishing at all.

So far, there's a story that has repeated in some rural communities: not so good guys come, ask for a price, people try to defend, they have their balls broken by the government disarming them, so the town is later taken by those guys and the inhabitants of the place are displaced.

The second history is about the "welcome to reality" that comes by dealing with working in something you like and then finding corruption, dishonesty, and everything else that is to be found in that real world where people do not strive to do a good job but rather want the money, fame and recognition just for free. And of course, how your balls get broken in the process.

I have never tried to write pulp fiction. I found it way too depressive and doomed. Doomed, not in the heroic sense, that's why I don't like pulp fiction. But I guess that, with time, I'm becoming more and more cynic. I guess my way to deal with the disenchantment of this part of reality is to write The Damned.

Now, I'm not a total cynic. I have the most wonderful friends and acquaintances that make everything easier. I still believe that selfishness and the joy of a job well done can change everything and I'm sure that this will find a way into The Damned sooner or later.

Cheers!

The Damned: El Capi

—Oh, c'mon. Don't give me that look. Surely, you were young and naive as well. I can bet a few bucks on the fact that you wanted to change investigative reporting and do things right just for the pleasure of doing things right.

—You see, I was right.

—I guess it came slowly, just like it may had happened to you.

—How? It started from afar. You are on the field and then you heard the stories of a certain unit that turned into the dark side for money or glory. Who cares? It is a story and you don't really believe it will not happen with this unit.

—Then? Well, one day you are transfered and the stories stop being of a unit stationed afar. Now, they are about your unit leader. How he made a sergeant take the fall from him during an assault, how he took the credit from another unit leader for an operation he was just providing with support.

—Yeah, of course you don't believe those. C'mon, is your unit leader! Your life depends on him. If you cannot trust him, then you are blind; you become a oars-less raft in the middle of the effing ocean.

But then, then you happen to be in a briefing where he shifts the blame for a failed op into a chap gone dod trying to do his best to get the job done.

—I mean, it may be ok... once. The problem is that all the stories start clicking and taking their place in the jigsaw.

Next time you find yourself taking a real good deep analysis of your orders. Sitting down with your chaps and realizing that either the highly polished brass or your unit leader has no idea of what is going on out there.

—I can understand, my rank required that I should be able to think and plan. What I didn't understand was how he always managed to avoid going into the field with us. When it becomes normal that things goes afu, something is wrong.

—Yeah, of course, I thought it was my fault missing something in the debriefing. But you sit down with your peers and start going over the briefing, the mission... You know, it is hard to forget something when your grunts are out there pinned down when they were supposed to be fighting an easy one.

Then, everything starts falling apart...

The stories you have heard... the lack of deep planning... the repetition of old and well known tactics... the shift of blaming on us or the grunts... suddenly, everything is very real and you know that the next op may be the last one...

—I think you are right, that's when the survival instinct kicks in. You start taking more time planning and trying to cover. It is not about him anymore, it is about you and the grunts.

—I wish it were that simple... Disregarding direct and specific orders of a superior is not something simple. Not when that superior is somehow acquiring a nice shine on his brass.

—Well, this is what made it.

We were sappers. You know, this bridge, that foundation, just leave it to us. Most of the time, even with the wrong data, we managed to complete the missions without any dod.

But this one time, it was too much. A few days ago we got this really wrong intel briefing. It was a simple hit and run, kidnappers. We were supposed to open a back door to get the vics out as soon as possible. We prepared as reported by our glorious unit leader.

We came to the place, rigged the back wall. Waited for the orders... and boom! it goes... but the wall was not as thick as we were briefed... the grunts closed down on the bad guys not fast enough to get the vics alive...

So, we have this really bad vibe... how the eff can you miss that simple and vital intel? Well, it happens that that lazy bastard was lazy enough not to go all over his brief and trickle down incomplete information...

—Yes, we thought in doing something. Then we got this call. A mountain road has to be cleared in the Sierra. Urgently! There we go! And the asshole decides to ride with us. We rig the place and go for it when half the hill comes on top of us. It took me almost a week to dig my way out.

I was not really in my best mood when I found a charge half the way up on that steep slope. Even in covering his tracks, that sob was a slop!

That's when I decided to go awol...

—I was a mess, I cannot remember when was the last time I was sober before Monseñor found me. He took me in and told me about the damned...

Now, I have not forgotten about that lousy sob but right now there are better things to do to get this place clean.

What does it take...

... to work 10+ hours 7 day week with a smile in your face? Motivation, passion and love of what you are doing. Thinking that, somehow, it makes sense... A little bit of hope, a lot of stubbornness too. Thinking this is it, now it is just a few more months...

Of course, these spells cannot last forever, they are the last leg of some interesting project. That last run for the light at the end of the tunnel always puts me in that mood. It was like that a few weeks last November and December, and before that it was last June.

I know my Lyx also does this with a smile on her face. How she takes long hours in academic fairs bringing info to students, making the calls to share the good news of acceptance and scholarship. I can even see, in my mind's eye, her smile as she tells me about this or that event in some state run or posh high school. How she takes the overtime and the extra work now and then to collect free days and money for a plane ticket and two free weeks.

And what does it take to loose everything slowly, without even realizing it is happening... Maybe opening your eyes to a reality that you believed happened somewhere else... Or realizing that it is not gonna be just a few more months... Finding that physics makes no sense if you do not enjoy what you are doing...

Anyway, in January, I had this one thing that I was curious about. Then, I loose the curiosity and the drive on the way. And now, thanks to a pair of very smart friends and colleagues, it has become that and two more things that we want to explore. I can feel the curiosity there, growing slowly, asking what will happen if we do this or that...

Now, it is just about finding the time to do them, to really make it just a few more months to be both in the same place, to go back to enjoy what you are doing, to believe in what you are doing...

What does it take?

I have always worked in something that fills my heart with passion and joy. I cannot compare the joy of playing with Maxwell's or Schrödinger's equation and find a beautiful mode of electromagnetic radiation or some curious behavior in an atomic trajectory.

Of course, there have been those moments when every step leads to a dead end. But even in those dark times, the hope for the light at the end of the tunnel is there and turns my heart alight to take the next step and make the next turn.

I have made of research my life. Afar from family and friends, my colleagues have become friends and family. Endless source of joy, council, help...

Alas, Lyx is missing.

It only takes one person and the realization that time is elapsing and we have not managed to find a way to be both in the same place.

This is what it takes... the realization that time is elapsing...

Life should be Lyx, family and friends... not research.