The border shootout in Sicario (11 today) was filmed on a full-scale replica of the Juarez–El Paso crossing, built in an Albuquerque rail yard. For safety/logistics, Denis Villeneuve couldn’t shoot there, so Patrice Vermette rebuilt it using helicopter footage, Mexico City B-roll, and Google Maps.
That practical set let them stage real cars and actors in a controlled space, then sell the scale by seamlessly combining it with real aerial shots and digital effects.
So I finally finished Better Call Saul. It is perhaps the best modern tv show I have ever seen (which if you know me, is very high praise). It’s way better than Breaking Bad and tells one of the greatest villain origin stories ever. The show did a fantastic job taking a seemingly goofy and sleazy villain and creating a backstory that is somehow way more fascinating than Walter White’s, and also exploring other characters such as Mike and Gus. There’s a lot to unpack with this show and I’ve already tweeted a lot about it, so I’ll just leave this by urging everyone to see this show.
“To live is merely to undergo a series of humiliations in a world that does not care whether you exist or not.”
- Osamu Dazai
Osamu Dazai’s writing frequently examined alienation, shame, loneliness, self-destruction, and the desire to find a place in the world. In works like No Longer Human, The Setting Sun, and Schoolgirl, he depicted people who struggled to connect with society or understand the expectations others seemed to follow naturally. Drawing heavily from personal experience, Dazai often blurred autobiography and fiction, giving his stories a deeply personal and vulnerable tone.
His work also suggests that loneliness can be most painful when someone feels unable to show others who they truly are. Many of his characters conceal themselves behind humor, performance, or carefully constructed social masks while becoming increasingly isolated. Beneath their despair, Dazai explores identity, belonging, and the painful conflict between wanting acceptance and feeling incapable of ever being fully understood.
“The transition from Hegel to Marx is, in all respects, a transition to an essentially different order of truth, not to be interpreted in terms of philosophy. We shall see that all the philosophical concepts of Marxian theory are social and economic categories, whereas Hegel’s social and economic categories are all philosophical concepts.”
– Herbert Marcuse