Jessica Chastain takes on one of her most daring roles in Dreams, a torrid erotic thriller about power, obsession, art and immigration. Re-teaming with filmmaker Michel Franco (Memory), she plays a San Francisco socialite entangled in a tempestuous affair with a talented Mexican ballet dancer, played by Isaac Hernandez. Her character Jennifer, the well-heeled daughter of a powerful man, is like Shiv Roy before she went to the dark side; Or, rather, realized she was there all along.
Dreams creatively explores ideas about US relations with Mexican immigrants through the ever-shifting power dynamics between Fernando and Jennifer. It’s both captivating and bleak, with a series of sexual encounters that can only be described as feral — Wuthering Heights wishes it could have hit the ravenous peaks of Fernando and Jennifer together.
Franco opens his film not on these two, but on a semitruck in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. All we can hear are chilling screams and pounding from those inside. When the doors are later opened, migrants pour out of the truck including the man who we’ll come to know is Fernando, who simply walks away. He walks and walks and walks: Through the night, through the day, in a machinelike trance until he’s forced to stop for water.
Photo: AP
Eventually we learn where he’s going with such purpose when we hear him speak for the first time, asking drivers at a gas station, in perfect English, if he can get a ride to San Francisco. When he arrives, he goes straight to a fancy townhouse; After the doorbell goes unanswered, he finds the spare keys, enters and gets himself a snack out of the fridge with all the casualness of someone who has not only been there before, but who’s comfortable there as well. We understand this is not a break in — but what is it? Later that night Jennifer arrives and does not look that surprised to see him in her bed.
The film keeps exposition sparse, challenging the audience to figure it out as they go along. These two have a history that seems to have started in Mexico where Jennifer oversees a dance foundation. Her brother (a perfectly smug society brat played by Rupert Friend) makes fun of her interest in Mexico and her frequent trips there, scoffing that their money should go to Americans. She calls him a jerk but laughs too as a Mexican woman cleans up around them in a plush boardroom. Those juxtapositions between the invisible workers and the wealthy are everywhere in Dreams.
In San Francisco, Fernando is Jennifer’s secret. In private, they’re inseparable. In public, he’s something to be hidden from anyone who knows her or her father. After a little bit of this dance, Fernando decides he’s had enough and disappears. Jennifer goes a bit mad trying to find him; flying to visit his parents in Mexico City (who tell her to leave him alone), hiring a private investigator. Then he reappears one day in front of the San Francisco Ballet. He’s dancing for a ticket to the show and ends up with a job in the company after catching the right eye. Suddenly he’s found not just a place in Jennifer’s rarefied world, but a starring role, purely on talent and without her help at all.
Photo: AP
For a brief moment, they find their way back to one another, and she attempts to be more public with their relationship. But still, she defaults to calling him anything but her boyfriend; Then her family gets wind of what’s happening and that fantasy comes crashing down. Not too long after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement come for Fernando while he’s in rehearsal as the ballet company’s lead.
Hernandez in his film debut is a beguiling presence as an actor and utterly transcendent as a dancer, which we get to see a lot of. The film lets the audience bask in their elegant weightlessness as they rehearse the thematically apt Swan Lake.
The story takes on an even more sinister air when Jennifer and Fernando reunite in Mexico. She wants to keep him there, as her plaything, to visit. All he wants to do is get back into the US. And the power balance shifts and shifts again to dizzying, horrific ends.
Photo: AP
Photo: AP
Jason Han says that the e-arrival card spat between South Korea and Taiwan shows that Seoul is signaling adherence to its “one-China” policy, while Taiwan’s response reflects a reciprocal approach. “Attempts to alter the diplomatic status quo often lead to tit-for-tat responses,” the analyst on international affairs tells the Taipei Times, adding that Taiwan may become more cautious in its dealings with South Korea going forward. Taipei has called on Seoul to correct its electronic entry system, which currently lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan),” warning that reciprocal measures may follow if the wording is not changed before March 31. As of yesterday,
The Portuguese never established a presence on Taiwan, but they must have traded with the indigenous people because later traders reported that the locals referred to parts of deer using Portuguese words. What goods might the Portuguese have offered their indigenous trade partners? Among them must have been slaves, for the Portuguese dealt slaves across Asia. Though we often speak of “Portuguese” ships, imagining them as picturesque vessels manned by pointy-bearded Iberians, in Asia Portuguese shipping between local destinations was crewed by Asian seamen, with a handful of white or Eurasian officers. “Even the great carracks of 1,000-2,000 tons which plied
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
Nuclear power is getting a second look in Southeast Asia as countries prepare to meet surging energy demand as they vie for artificial intelligence-focused data centers. Several Southeast Asian nations are reviving mothballed nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets and nearly half of the region could, if they pursue those goals, have nuclear energy in the 2030s. Even countries without current plans have signaled their interest. Southeast Asia has never produced a single watt of nuclear energy, despite long-held atomic ambitions. But that may soon change as pressure mounts to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change, while meeting growing power needs. The
RSS