Teknolust

Delightfully different
I enjoyed this film thoroughly, but I'm afraid it will suffer unnecessary criticism from a lot of viewers disappointed to find no actual erotica in it anywhere. Instead, it takes a relaxed, funny view of virtual sex, which happens entirely off-camera. What endeared the film to me was the truly original female sensibility of it all. There are no "bad guys" in this story; every character is likeable. There are no long, boring adolescent male videogame cyberbattles. The tension is not caused by a conflict of wills or an effort by anyone to get the better of anyone else; instead, it centers on the struggles of the characters, both human and virtual, to understand and connect with each other. As I said -- it's a female sensibility. And as far as I know, that's never been done in this genre before. Kudos to Leeson; it's time women started envisioning the potentialities of virtual reality at last. (Oh yeah, and I couldn't take my EYES off Tilda Swinton. What a great face!)

Teknno Lost!
This film's really strange. Tilda Swinton plays four characters; Rosetta/Ruby/Marinne/Olive. One is the creator, the others are clones.

A definciency in the clones means that one must regularly go out and have sex with men in order to harvest their semen, which she collects in a condom. Then she takes this back and makes a tea out of it which they all drink from, as well as they inject themselves with another by-product.

It's too weird

Colorful, but enigmatic.
This has everything I like about Tilda Swinton's best movies, plus some of what I dislike about her lesser works. Dislikes include low-budget effects and cryptic finales, but maybe that's part of the charm of these movies.

The good, of course, comes from Swinton. She plays a geek girl (Rosetta Stone), but plays the role with respect. She's shy, especially shy around men, and fiercely intelligent. Swinton also plays Stone's three clones: Ruby, Olive, and Marinne. It's a bit ham-handed, but the four roles are distinguished by very different wigs, and the clones by color coding: red, green, and ultramarine. Swinton's real achievement is in her physical presence[s] - the body language of each character is distinctly the character's own. Rosetta is especially good in her my-gawd-i'm-a-mother moments, painfully but realistically unsure, and over cautious as a result.

The plot device is a bit odd: almost vampiric in an AIDS-era kind of way, but with a computer-y angle...

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