Movies

Recent political events, such as the “Title 42” expulsions, have led to growing prominence in United States-Mexico border discourses. The Trump Administration used the law during the COVID-19 pandemic to remove migrants from the Mexican border, resulting in family separations and the denial of protection to asylum seekers. More recently, the Biden Administration implemented a policy in May 2023 that prohibited people from gaining asylum in the United States (US) if they had not already applied for asylum in a country they had travelled through in their journey to the border. In line with this, media and political rhetoric frequently present the idea of a permeable border as a threat to the US. 

Two films that engage in ideas of the permeability of the US-Mexico border are Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). This article will explore how these films either reimpose or dismantle the border. To construct these arguments, an analysis of cinematic techniques will be undertaken for each film, with a focus on mise-en-scène. It will be argued that the negative depiction of Mexico in Sicario reimposes border ideology. Subsequently, the article will assert that The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada instead dismantles the border division. In both texts, however, there are challenges and nuances to these arguments, as will be explored. These include border permeability in instances that are beneficial to the hegemony of the US in Sicario, and some aspects of Mexico’s romanticised portrayal that reinforce a divide in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. 

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Nicki Micheaux's directorial debut Summer of Silence, which was also written and produced by Micheaux has been selected to screen at the 31st Pan African Film Festival 2024.

'The Godfather' director is ready to release his passion project—which is now 40 years in the making. Francis Ford Coppola is finally ready to cut the ribbon on Megalopolis. The Godfather director has been working on his passion project sporadically since the '80s, but now he seems ready to release the film later this year. The sci-fi drama reportedly follows an architect who seeks to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a major disaster.

Megalopolis boasts an all-star cast of Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Dustin Hoffman, Chloe Fineman, Shia LaBeouf, Talia Shire, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Schwartzman, and Jon Voight. Filming wrapped just this past March, after Coppola reportedly financed the project himself. In a 2007 interview with Ain't It Cool News, Coppola revealed that he directed Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Jack (1996), and The Rainmaker (1997) simply to "save money up" so that he "could keep that money separate and use it to make Megalopolis."

There are not that many British films from the 1930s and 1940s about ghosts and haunted houses and the ones that do stand out are primarily comedies like The Ghost Goes West (1935), The Ghost Train (1941), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Things Happen at Night (1948). Still, there have been a few U.K. features that took a more serious approach to the genre and A Place of One’s Own (1945) is a good example, even though it is largely overlooked and forgotten today.

Based on the novel by Sir Osbert Sitwell, brother of renowned author Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell, A Place of One’s Own (1945) is an atmospheric ghost story set in the Edwardian era that marked the directorial debut of Bernard Knowles and reunited the stars of The Man in Grey (1943) – James Mason and Margaret Lockwood. The latter title, a gothic melodrama, had been a hit for Gainsborough Pictures, so the studio surmised that Sitwell’s supernatural chiller would have a similar popular appeal. The casting, however, was much more offbeat with the young James Mason, a matinee idol at the time, playing Mr. Smedhurst, a middle age businessman settling into retirement. He hires Annette (Margaret Lockwood) as a female companion for his wife Emilie (Barbara Mullen) at their newly purchased country home but shortly after her arrival there, Annette begins hearing strange voices and noticing odd occurrences.

The 2026 ceremony will feature recognition for achievement in casting, the first competitive award added since 2001

The story behind why James O'Barr wrote the comic in the first place is just as tragic as the death of star Brandon Lee.

Sean Durkin’s elegant portrait of the Von Erich wrestling family shows how hard-driven masculine legacy can both enrich and devastate a family.

Hot off the success of his melodrama May December, Portland auteur Todd Haynes is embarking on his next film: a detective movie starring Joaquin Phoenix that will shoot this summer. “It’s a love story between two men set in the ’30s that has explicit sexual content, or at least it challenges you with the sexual relationship between these two men,” Haynes told Variety. “One is a Native American character and one is a corrupt cop in L.A. They have to flee L.A. ultimately and go to Mexico.”

Haynes wrote the film’s story in collaboration with Phoenix and Jon Raymond, the Portland novelist and screenwriter best known for his collaborations with Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up). Phoenix’s co-star, likely to be an unknown, has yet to be cast.

AI is the buzzword of the moment, and nowhere seems to be safe — even film festivals. This year’s edition of Sundance was a prime example. Multiple documentaries about the past and present of artificial intelligence made an appearance, and at least one film — the dark comedy Little Death — utilized generative AI as an artistic choice. There was even Love Me, a post-apocalyptic romantic comedy about two AIs in love.

Outside of AI, there was the usual crop of inventive horror movies, a coming-of-age story set during the good ol’ days of AIM, and a heartbreaking documentary that was set partially inside of World of Warcraft. In short: Sundance had range this year. And while we couldn’t catch everything, we did watch a lot, and came away with this list of our favorites.

Ethan Coen says he and his brother Joel Coen are working on something that 'Blood Simple fans might love, and it could be a "pure horror."

Via @Djinn

The “Saint Maud” filmmaker’s second feature is an equally alluring and repellant mashup of disparate genres and ideas.

@livus, you probably want to add another hashtag to this mag: #NowWatching

#movies

Everybody’s forgotten a new work from David Cronenberg is likely just months from debut, and I suspect The Shrouds will only land all the harder for it. Early word’s placed it among the strangest, saddest, toughest films David Cronenberg’s ever made––a reckoning with the passing of his wife dressed in characteristically fantastic sci-fi conceits.

The director hit Instagram with new images of Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga. See them via Empire.

As for “Dune: Messiah,” the trilogy capper, we have an update on that project, and it seems to be picking up some major steam. At this point, its future making is turning into an inevitability.

Via @maegul

Bound to be something for your watchlist in this:

“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Poor Things” topped IndieWire’s annual critics poll of the best movies of the year.

The Iranian thriller drama “Just 6.5” (also known as “Law of Tehran”) written and directed by Saeed Roustayi has been included in the list of 50 best films released in the UK in 2023 by The Guardian. A production of 2019, the movie hit the cinemas in the UK in March, after being released in eight other countries and participating in about 30 international film festivals across the globe.

Upon its premiere in Iran in February 2019, the film won multiple awards, including the Crystal Simorgh for Audience Choice of Best Film, at the 37th Fajr Film Festival. Later in the September that year, it was well received by critics at the 76th Venice Film Festival. It also received several nominations at international film festivals and won awards from festivals in Tokyo, Bordeaux, and Zurich among others.

“The Boy and the Heron,” the latest work from beloved Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, has become his first film to top the North American box office.

Via @throws_lemy

Nickelodeons began as a showman’s next step to making it rich in America. Harry Davis, born in England in 1870, immigrated to the United States at the age of nine and two years later entered the world of showmanship as a carnival hustler. He quickly learned effective business skills and how to appeal to crowds, discovering a passion for the field. By the time inventions such as Edison’s Kinetoscope, the French Cinematograph, and the American Vitascope entered the scene, Davis was a successful owner of several “dime museums,” penny arcades, and playhouses in a variety of locations. The entertainment value of moving pictures became apparent to Davis when he began showing them at these various locations as additional attractions...

Via [email protected]

Directed, Produced, Filmed, Animated, Edited by, Jim McKenziePotato Face merch available here: https://jimmckenzie.bigcartel.com/Potato Face is a theatrical ...

Nominations for the 81st Golden Globes were announced Monday morning...Unlike the Oscars, the Globes honor the best of both film and television and steer clear of recognizing excellence in most below-the-line crafts like editing or cinematography. They also distinguish between film genres, recognizing the best comedies and musicals separately from the best dramas. Thus, “Oppenheimer” will compete for the top drama prize alongside “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest” and “Past Lives.” For its part, “Barbie” will vie for best comedy or musical with “Air,” “American Fiction,” “Poor Things,” “May December” and “The Holdovers.”

Via @skavau

This is from The Film Stage

“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist–moving an audience through a movie […] making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark,” said the late, great Gordon Willis. As our year-end coverage continues, we must pay dues. From talented newcomers to seasoned professionals, we’ve rounded up the examples that have most impressed us this year.

Here's an excerpt >Although it could not have been planned that way, the forty-eighth Polish Film Festival will stand as one of the last cultural monuments of the outgoing far-right government that has ruled over the country since 2015. Along with socially intolerant and ultra-Catholic anti-immigration and anti-abortion policies, the Law and Justice party and its allies have promoted a version of Polish history that highlighted individual nationalist heroism, and downplayed, revised, distorted, or denied more awkward examples of collective complicity, such as the many historical instances of antisemitism in Poland. This promotion took many forms, from legislating against historical facts pointing to Polish participation in the Holocaust to removing dissident directors and curators from museums and other cultural centers. Most significantly in the context of the festival, the government promoted its worldview by controlling the finance of films and television.

Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Sony Pictures join forces with StudioCanal, soccer's English Premier League and the MPA to oppose new legislation that would end geo-blocking of film and TV content across the European Union.

Via @neme