Sunday at the movies

Narcos: Mexico. The Cosmopolitan Globalists' annual film awards. Plus: The French Election Twitter Space Returns

Season three: Narcos and Norteños

Today at the Cosmopolitan Globalist, Joshua Treviño reviews the third and final season of Narcos: Mexico, a fictionalized account of the origins of the Mexican drug war in the rise of the Guadalajara cartel. As he writes,

A quarter-century after the events in season three, Mexican civic breakdown and internal warfare has reached levels that make the violence of the 1990s positively bucolic by comparison. It is reaching into our communities and our governance, and though fiction should be a start to understanding rather than a conclusion, this is a good place for that start.

You can read more by Josh at Armas, his newsletter about Mexico, Texas, China, strategy, culture, and cinema. Go check it out.

Once you’ve finished watching Narcos, we’ve got the coveted AWAVS: Arun Kapil’s much-anticipated list of the best and worst movies of 2021, below. (“AWAV” stands for Arun with a View, his blog about French politics, culture, and society; the Middle East and North Africa; geopolitics generally; and cinema. Go check it out.)

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News and notes

Are you on Twitter? Are you interested in the French presidential election? The Cosmopolitan Globalist’s weekly French Election Twitter Space returns today at 15:00 Paris time. (That’s in about an hour, so hurry.) Who’s up? Who’s down? Whose knife is in whose back? Find out with Claire Berlinski, Jérome Clavel, Arun Kapil, and Frédéric Guarino as we convene to handicap the election, in English.

Here’s some background reading. (If you don’t read French, use the magic goggles.)

• Politico’s poll of the polls.

• Presidential 2022: who are the candidates? “Once again, the candidates for the supreme office are very numerous.” (In French.)

• Presidential poll: four candidates neck and neck behind Macron. (In French.)

  Reuters @Reuters

  WATCH: Valerie Pecresse, the French presidential candidate for the conservative Les Republicains party, has emerged as one of Emmanuel Macron's most serious challengers in April's election reut.rs/34vwFbB

• At the Louvre, Marine Le Pen wants to “close the Macron parenthesis.” Le Pen posted a campaign clip shot on the esplanade of the Louvre, the symbolic site of the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. The museum requested the withdrawal of the video, which was made without its authorization. (In French.)

  Marine Le Pen @MLP_officiel

  Affaissement du pays, déclassement des Français : c’est au Louvre qu’a commencé le quinquennat d’Emmanuel Macron. 🇫🇷 Pour renouer avec un destin collectif et un grand projet national, n’attendez pas l’élection présidentielle : faites-la ! Retrouvez ma déclaration du Louvre ⤵️

• Popular primary: seven applications selected, including Christiane Taubira, Anne Hidalgo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and Yannick Jadot. The vote, resulting from a citizens’ initiative to decide among the left-wing presidential candidates, will be held online from January 27 to 30. (In French.)

• In Greece, Valérie Pécresse denounces “The European sieve” and praises “barbed wire walls” against migrants.

• French village mayors could sink Zemmour’s presidential bid.

• Mélenchon, Le Pen, and Zemmour having difficulty obtaining sponsorship. The three candidates are struggling to collect the 500 signatures required to get on the ballot. (In French.)

• France’s Taubira hopes to rally divided left against Macron. (In French.)

• The end of the French left. Christiane Taubira wants to reinvigorate progressive politics. She risks splitting it even further.

• Anne Hidalgo reacts to Christiane Taubira’s declaration of her candidacy. “The mayor of Paris believes that the decision of the former Keeper of the Seals ‘will further separate, divide and create confusion’ on the left.” (In French.)

• Education of disabled children: Éric Zemmour stirs controversy. Positioning himself against the “obsession with inclusion” in education, the presidential candidate managed to offend pretty much everyone. (In French.)

• Le Pen on Zemmour: “Choosing systematic brutality as a political project is already questionable, but attacking children who are fragile because they’re handicapped is a red line and it is unforgivable.”

  Marine Le Pen @MLP_officiel

  Choisir la brutalité systématique comme projet politique est déjà contestable, mais s’attaquer aux enfants fragilisés par un handicap, c’est une ligne rouge et c’est impardonnable.

  

  bfmtv.comÉric Zemmour suscite la polémique après sa proposition sur les élèves handicapésLe président des députés LR Damien Abad, lui-même en situation de handicap, a dénoncé sur Twitter la “ségrégation à tous les étages” du candidat d’extrême droite tandis que la secrétaire d’État Sophie Cluzel a critiqué une “déclaration pitoyable”.

• Macron and Pécresse, a story of mutual mistrust. (In French.)

  Éric Zemmour in English – Support and Translation @ZemmourEnglish

  It shouldn't be the case that parents have to scrutinize their children's textbooks and lessons to detect the LGBT and anti-racist propaganda that is injected into their brains! #SaintQuentin #France #reconquête #ZemmourEcole #zemmourcandidat #ZemmourEric #ZemmourPresident2022

  

  Eric Zemmour @ZemmourEric

  Il n’est pas normal que des parents doivent scruter les manuels scolaires et les cours de leurs enfants pour détecter la propagande LGBT ou antiraciste injectée dans leurs cerveaux ! #SaintQuentin

• 10 phrases you will definitely hear during the French presidential election (useful if you’re studying French).

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The AWAV annual list

By Arun Kapil

Voilà AWAV’s annual list (for last year’s, go here).

This was an unusual year for movies, as theaters were closed for over seven months during the second confinement, or lockdown, which began on October 30, 2020. After the confinement was lifted, on May 19th, a big backlog of movies—most made before the pandemic and which did not open in 2020—hit the salles, with at least four or five opening in any given week, and through the year, that were well-reviewed and looked worth seeing. And so I saw quite a few (though some I really didn’t need to). Par contre, I spent five weeks in the US last summer and went to the cinoche but once. When it comes to going to the movies, France (and particularly Paris) is so far superior to America. N.B. I did not see ‘No Time to Die’, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, or ‘Dune’, and regardless of stellar reviews and word-of-mouth. Not my genres. I also have not seen Steven Spielberg’s remake of ‘West Side Story’, as IMHO this is not a movie that needed to be remade.

TOP 10:

Ballad of a White Cow (Le Pardon قصیده گاو سفید)
Drive My Car (ドライブ・マイ・カー)
Identifying Features (Sin señas particulares)
Just 6.5 (La Loi de Téhéran متری شیش و نیم)
Kuessipan
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Sound of Metal
The Father
The Mauritanian
There Is No Evil (Le Diable n’existe pas شیطان وجود ندارد)

HONORABLE MENTION:

A Hero (قهرمان)
Good Mother (Bonne mère)
Nomadland
The Endless Trench (La trinchera infinita)
The Speech (Le Discours)

BEST MOVIE FROM KAZAKHSTAN:

A Dark, Dark Man (Чёрный, чёрный человек)

BEST MOVIE FROM CAMBODIA:

White Building (អគារពណ៌ស)

BEST MOVIE FROM CHINA SET IN TIBET:

Balloon (气球)

BEST MOVIE FROM JAPAN WITH A WORLD WAR II THEME:

Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (万夜を越えて)

SECOND BEST MOVIE FROM JAPAN WITH A WORLD WAR II THEME:

Wife of a Spy (Les Amants sacrifiés スパイの妻)

BEST COMEDY FROM JAPAN:

Hospitalité (歓待)

BEST FRANCO-ARMENIAN MOVIE SET IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH:

Should the Wind Fall (Si le vent tombe)

BEST MOVIE FROM FINLAND SET IN RUSSIA:

Compartment No. 6 (Hytti nro 6 Купе номер шесть)

BEST MOVIE FROM RUSSIA SET IN THE EARLY 1960s SOVIET UNION:

Dear Comrades! (Дорогие товарищи!)

BEST NOT BAD MOVIE FROM ENGLAND SET IN THE EARLY 1960s SOVIET UNION:

The Courier

BLEAKEST MOVIE FROM LITHUANIA SET IN THE LATE 1940s SOVIET UNION:

In the Dusk (Sutemose)

ZANIEST MOVIE FROM ROMANIA:

Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc)

BEST BIOPIC FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC ABOUT A FORGOTTEN CZECHOSLOVAK HERBALIST HEALER WHO WAS FAMOUS IN HIS ERA:

Charlatan (Šarlatán)

MOST AUSTERE MOVIE FROM SLOVAKIA:

Servants (Služobníci)

BEST MOVIE FROM DENMARK ABOUT A BUNCH OF MIDDLE-AGED GUYS TRYING TO DRINK EACH OTHER UNDER THE TABLE:

Another Round (Druk)

BEST MOVIE FROM NORWAY ABOUT AN AMIABLE THIRTY-SOMETHING WOMAN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HER LIFE:

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske)

BEST MOVIE FROM SWEDEN ABOUT THE SLEAZY SIDE OF THE ADULT FILM INDUSTRY IN LOS ANGELES:

Pleasure

BEST MOVIE FROM ENGLAND ABOUT A SIXTY-SOMETHING ENGLISH CONVERT TO ISLAM WHO DISCOVERS A SECRET ABOUT HER BELOVED DECEASED PAKISTANI HUSBAND:

After Love

BEST SWISS MOVIE FROM UKRAINE:

Olga

BEST SWISS MOVIE FROM LEBANON:

Skies of Lebanon (Sous le ciel d’Alice)

BEST ROAD MOVIE FROM PALESTINE:

200 Meters (٢٠٠ متر)

BEST ROMANTIC COMEDY FROM PALESTINE:

Gaza mon amour (غزة مونامور)

BEST NOT TOO GOOD MOVIE FROM MOROCCO ABOUT AN OVER-THE-HILL HIP HOP SINGER IN CASABLANCA:

Zanka Contact (Burning Casablanca)

BEST NOT BAD GAY-THEMED MOVIE FROM SOUTH AFRICA ABOUT THE SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY IN THE APARTHEID ERA:

Moffie

BEST MOVIE FROM SENEGAL ABOUT TWO BROTHERS IN A VILLAGE WHO ARE IN CONFLICT OVER TRADITION VERSUS MODERNITY:

Nafi’s Father

BEST MOVIE FROM HAITI ABOUT TWO SISTERS TRYING TO GET BY IN THE MIDST OF STATE COLLAPSE:

Freda

BEST BIOPIC FROM COLOMBIA ABOUT A MEDELLÍN SOCIAL ACTIVIST DOCTOR AND ALL-AROUND GOOD MAN WHO WAS A VICTIM OF COLOMBIA’S TRAGEDY:

Forgotten We’ll Be (El olvido que seremos)

BEST BIOPIC FROM QUEBEC ABOUT A FAMOUS AND BELOVED QUÉBÉCOISE POP SINGER:

Aline

BEST BIOPIC FROM FRANCE ABOUT A FAMOUS AND NOT NECESSARILY BELOVED FRENCH RAP SINGER:

Suprêmes

BEST HOLLYWOOD BIOPIC ABOUT THE TRAGIC LIFE OF A FAMOUS AND BELOVED AMERICAN JAZZ AND BLUES SINGER:

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

BEST BIOPIC FROM FRANCE ABOUT THE ARCHITECT OF THE EIFFEL TOWER:

Eiffel

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE BASED ON A BALZAC NOVEL:

Lost Illusions (Illusions perdues)

SECOND-BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE BASED ON A BALZAC NOVEL:

Eugénie Grandet

WORST MOVIE FROM FRANCE BASED ON A PHILIP ROTH NOVEL:

Deception (Tromperie)

BEST THRILLER FROM FRANCE ABOUT CORPORATE MALFEASANCE:

Red Soil (Rouge)

SECOND BEST THRILLER FROM FRANCE ABOUT CORPORATE MALFEASANCE:

Black Box (Boîte noire)

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE WITH A REPRESSED MEMORY OF THE ALGERIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE THEME:

Home Front (Des hommes)

BEST POLICE ACTION MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT ROGUE COPS VERSUS DRUG TRAFFICKING GANGS IN THE MEAN HOUSING PROJECTS OF MARSEILLE:

The Stronghold (BAC Nord)

BEST DRAMA FROM FRANCE ABOUT THE POINTLESS SECURITY THEATER OF FRANCE’S ANTI-TERRORISM MILITARY STREET PATROLS:

The Third War (La Troisième guerre)

BEST COURTROOM DRAMA FROM FRANCE ABOUT GETTING AT THE TRUTH IN A SEXUAL ASSAULT CASE:

The Accusation (Les Choses humaines)

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT A 22-YEAR-OLD WOMAN AND THE NIGHTMARE OF UNWANTED PREGNANCY IN THE PRE-LEGAL ABORTION ERA:

Happening (L’Événement)

BEST HORROR MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT A WOMAN WHO RAISES EDIBLE LOCUSTS ON HER FARM BUT WHICH GETS OUT OF HAND:

The Swarm (La Nuée)

BEST GEM OF A LIGHT COMEDY FROM FRANCE ABOUT A GROUP OF TWENTY-SOMETHING YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH ONE ANOTHER:

All Hands on Deck (À l’abordage)

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT A PROSTITUTE AND HER TEENAGE SON IN STRASBOURG WITH LAURE CALAMY IN THE LEAD ROLE:

Her Way (Une femme du monde)

BEST ROHMERESQUE ROMANTIC COMEDY FROM FRANCE ABOUT THE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN A YOUNGER WOMAN AND AN OLDER WOMAN WITH ANAÏS DEMOUSTIER AND VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Anaïs in Love (Les Amours d’Anaïs)

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT MARITAL POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CLASS CONFLICT IN A HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM DURING THE GILETS JAUNES MOVEMENT WITH VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI AND MARINA FOÏS IN THE LEAD ROLES:

The Divide (La Fracture)

BEST MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT A MARRIED COUPLE DEALING WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER WITH LEÏLA BEKHTI AND DAMIEN BONNARD IN THE LEAD ROLES:

The Restless (Les Intranquilles)

BEST NOT BAD MOVIE FROM FRANCE ABOUT ASSISTED SUICIDE WITH ANDRÉ DUSSOLLIER AND SOPHIE MARCEAU IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Everything Went Fine (Tout s’est bien passé)

MOST WILD-AND-CRAZY FRENCH MOVIE SET IN 17TH CENTURY TUSCANY WITH VIRGINIE EFIRA AND CHARLOTTE RAMPLING IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Benedetta

MOST WILD-AND-CRAZY FRANCO-BELGIAN MUSICAL OPERA SET IN LOS ANGELES WITH ADAM DRIVER AND MARION COTILLARD IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Annette

MOST NOT ALL THAT GOOD FRENCH MUSICAL SET IN LOURDES WITH MATHIEU AMALRIC AND JOSIANE BALASKO IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Tralala

MOST NOT ALL THAT GOOD FRENCH POLITICAL PARODY SET IN THE CORRÈZE WITH JEAN DUJARDIN AND GRÉGORY GADEBOIS IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Présidents

MOST NOT ALL THAT GOOD HOLLYWOOD MOVIE SET IN MARSEILLE WITH MATT DAMON AND CAMILLE COTTIN IN THE LEAD ROLES:

Stillwater

MOST NOT ALL THAT GOOD HOLLYWOOD MOVIE WITH CAREY MULLIGAN IN THE LEAD ROLE:

Promising Young Woman

BEST HOLLYWOOD MOVIE WITH NICOLAS CAGE IN THE LEAD ROLE:

Pig

BEST NOT BAD HOLLYWOOD MOVIE ABOUT A KOREAN IMMIGRANT FAMILY IN ARKANSAS:

Minari

BEST INDIE MOVIE ABOUT A KOREAN ADOPTEE IN LOUISIANA WHO RUNS AFOUL OF AMERICA’S CRUEL AND INHUMANE IMMIGRATION LAWS:

Blue Bayou

MOST AMUSING NETFLIX PARODY OF THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ZEITGEIST:

Don’t Look Up

MOST DISAPPOINTINGLY NOT VERY GOOD NETFLIX MOVIE ABOUT BLACK AMERICAN PASSING IN THE PRE-CIVIL RIGHTS ERA:

Passing

MOST FRANKLY TERRIBLE FRANCO-ALGERIAN MOVIE ABOUT INTERGENERATIONAL CONFLICT IN A BOURGEOIS ALGERIAN FAMILY IN PARIS:

Honey Cigar (Cigare au miel)

BEST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A FORGOTTEN 1969 NEW YORK CITY MUSIC FESTIVAL:

Summer of Soul

BEST DOCUMENTARY FROM ROMANIA ABOUT THE HEROIC WORK OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS TO EXPOSE CORRUPTION AND STATE INCOMPETENCE THEREBY UNDERSCORING THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF A FREE PRESS IN A POLITY:

Collective (Colectiv)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FROM FRANCE ABOUT THE UNLIKELY COLLABORATION OF A RADICAL LEFT-WING AND MODERATE RIGHT-WING PARLIAMENTARY DEPUTY TO ENACT LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF POORLY REMUNERATED AND OVERWORKED FEMALE HOMECARE ASSISTANTS:

Debout les femmes!

BEST DOCUMENTARY FROM FRANCE ABOUT AN ANTI-NAZI RESISTANCE COUPLE DURING THE OCCUPATION WHO PROTECTED DOZENS OF JEWISH CHILDREN IN THEIR SCHOOL OUTSIDE PARIS BUT WERE NONETHELESS ACCUSED OF COLLABORATION AFTER THE WAR:

Pingouin & Goéland et leurs 500 petits

BEST MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTARY SHOT ON A SMARTPHONE ABOUT THE JOURNEY TO EUROPE OF AN ASYLUM-SEEKING FAMILY FROM AFGHANISTAN THAT MUST BE SEEN BY ANYONE WITH AN OPINION ON ASYLUM-SEEKERS FROM COUNTRIES IN THE THROES OF WAR OR STATE COLLAPSE:

Midnight Traveler

BEST DOCUMENTARY ON THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE IN FRANCE SEEN THROUGH THE PRISM OF AN ELDERLY ALGERIAN COUPLE IN A TOWN IN THE AUVERGNE AND THE LIFE EXPERIENCES OF THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN:

Leur Algérie

BEST DOCUMENTARY FROM ALGERIA ABOUT AN ENDEARING SEVENTY-SOMETHING WOMAN WHO RUNS A MODEST CAFÉ IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT:

143 Sahara Street (143 rue du Désert)

BEST MOVIE BY RIDLEY SCOTT:

The Last Duel

BEST MOVIE BY PAUL SCHRADER:

The Card Counter

BEST MOVIE BY KELLY REICHARDT:

First Cow

BEST MOVIE BY LEYLA BOUZID:

A Tale of Love and Desire (Une histoire d’amour et de désir)

MOST SUCCESSFUL DIRECTORIAL DEBUT BY SAMIR GUESMI:

Ibrahim

MOST MORE OR LESS SUCCESSFUL DIRECTORIAL DEBUT BY VIGGO MORTENSEN:

Falling

BEST OKAY MOVIE BY MAÏWENN:

DNA (ADN)

MOST MERELY OKAY MOVIE BY JACQUES AUDIARD:

Paris, 13th District (Les Olympiades)

MOST INCOMPREHENSIBLE MOVIE BY KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV THAT ONE LIKELY HAS TO BE RUSSIAN TO UNDERSTAND:

Petrov’s Flu (Петровы в гриппе)

MOST TECHNICALLY IMPRESSIVE BUT CONVOLUTED AND BORING MOVIE BY WES ANDERSON:

The French Dispatch

MOST OVERRATED MOVIE BY JANE CAMPION:

The Power of the Dog

MOST FLAWED MOVIE BY MATHIEU AMALRIC:

Hold Me Tight (Serre moi fort)

MOST RIDICULOUS LOVE STORY BY NICOLE GARCIA:

Lovers (Amants)

MOST FAILED PARODY OF THE MEDIA BY BRUNO DUMONT:

France

MOST FAILED FRANCO-ALGERIAN FAMILY MELODRAMA BY YAMINA BENGUIGUI:

Sisters (Sœurs)

MOST QUITE SIMPLY FAILED MOVIE BY AMOS GITAI:

Laila in Haifa (לילה בחיפה)

MOST INSUFFERABLE MOVIE BY NADAV LAPID:

Ahed’s Knee (הברך)

POSSIBLY THE WORST MOST SOPORIFIC MOVIE EVER BY BENOÎT JACQUOT:

Suzanna Andler

POSSIBLY THE WORST MOST ABSURD MOVIE EVER BY CLINT EASTWOOD:

Cry Macho

POSSIBLY THE WORST CANNES FILM FESTIVAL PALME D’OR WINNER EVER:

Titane

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Bad Australia! Bad!

A Stern Scolding from the Chinese Communist Party

Canberra’s China delusion a bellicose display adding to Australia's unpredictability

Australia’s recent militaristic frenzy is believed to be part of an aggressive scheme to work in active conjunction with the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is supposed to buttress the US’ regional and global hegemony and suppress and thwart China’s development. 

Since mid-2017, Canberra has been spearheading Washington’s anti-China campaign, wantonly trashing the mutually beneficial comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Australia. Bilateral relations have been sustaining unprecedented damages, hitting an all-time low with no clear prospect of improvement in sight.

With a relentless mulishness, Australia appears to be headstrong on a militaristic path with China, positioned as its avowed adversary. … In the face of Australia’s increasingly erratic unpredictability, China is more vigilant of the possible risks, and ready to take resolute decisive measures to deter threats and protect its national interest.