I took a peek at the film on Roger Ebert's website before I went to see Frontier, and didn't look forward to seeing the low ratings. The film won a boring best makeup at the Oscars. But when I sat in the theater until the subtitles appeared, I felt that this was the best movie I have watched since 2019, and I felt that Oscar really made itself into a very boring and unbright commercial room. The biggest flaw in what critics write on Roger Ebert is that it's hard to empathize/resonate. I don't know if it's because of gender. As a female audience, when the heroine received the first "ugly" insult, I stood on the same front as the heroine.
This film, like many great films, is allegorical, and the result is that many people can relate to issues they care about, including but not limited to feminism, terrorism and race. The theme of the film is ultimately about alienation. The film is based on the novel of the same name by author Lyndquist. Lindquist is a Stephen King-esque bestselling novelist in Northern Europe. These types of writers have a gripping energy to tell outlandish stories. It's easy to find understanding and resonance in stories like this, where people living in cities live in the realities of industrialization/artificialization, over-commercialization, and various problems caused by racial and class conflicts. The film has a clear moral stance, but it's not aggressive. The actress's performance is stunning, with heavy makeup, expressing universal human emotions under the premise that she must appear awkward and out of place, allowing one to deeply appreciate her joy from numbness, fear, struggle, and falling in love. and courage in making life-threatening decisions.
With the deepening of the film, the audience's expectations of the genre are constantly being subverted. As a detective story, the romance in it is too well done. Just as the romantic imagination unfolds, we're taken back into a hardcore horror story. As a horror story, the display of human nature is directly and transparently no different from dramas with general social themes. The middle part also has comedic nourishment.
I won't give any spoilers, but I recommend everyone to watch it.
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