Get Ready for the Sexy Thriller About Trump's Wall You Definitely Weren't Asking For
It was only a matter of time before we got a high-profile movie based around the concept of the notorious wall (which is replace the existing one, I guess?) between the U.S. and Mexico that our dear white supremacist president banked an entire campaign on.
Sure, there have already been plenty of documentaries and art installations about this perfect symbol of American isolationism (seriously, please don’t let him lock us in with him), but an upcoming film seeks to explore not the lives of those affected by the wall, but the lives of those vying to build it. Why? Was anybody asking for this? Uh, we’ll get back to you.
American Wall, described by the production company behind it as “a tale of greed, vengeance, sex and ambition,” will be written, directed, and produced by award-winning Chinese filmmaker Wang Quan’an, in his first English-language project. American Wall appears to be a bit of a departure from Wang Quan’an’s previous work, which have focused on rural China, women protagonists, and the complexity of relationships. The synopsis, via Hollywood Reporter:
According to the plot summary provided by Lupi Pictures so far, the pic will revolve around a protagonist named Harris, “an unscrupulous architect, whose unending drive to secure the mandate to design the infamous U.S.-Mexico wall becomes all-consuming.” The story follows Harris as he seduces a “powerful woman with the right connections to secure his bid, only to find himself trapped within his own manipulations.” The summary also makes a note of an ominous border-wall technology “sought by the decision makers.”
It sounds like another existential trip into the depraved and hedonistic life of a questionable guy doing questionable things at the cost of the livelihoods of poor people, like if you put a somehow remorseful Patrick Bateman in Syriana. Perhaps the film will be a great portrait of capitalism and moral decay and racism! (After all, Wang is supposed to be shooting a film about Karl Marx’s trip to Algiers to write Das Kapital.) Or maybe not.
Maybe it will also avoid the pitfalls of female objectification, even though the film is all about seduction and the casting call included characters like a high schooler who moonlights as an escort and a “former model” who’s married to a congressman, so, again, maybe not! The casting appears to be non-traditional (“colorblind” casting) so that’s something, I guess.
I am deeply not sure that a sex-laden political thriller about the wall is what we need, but I guess Logan couldn’t be the only Trump-era border-themed blockbuster forever.