Dark Blue
2022 · 12m · USA
Directed by Stephen Cole Webley
Tones: contemplative, provocative, tender, tense
In the lawless stretch of desert along the U.S.-Mexico border, an immigrant on a desperate crossing stumbles upon the grisly aftermath of an execution gone wrong — and is forced to make an impossible moral decision.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Three-minute silent immigrant prologue before a border execution collides into the story. The structural patience is more interesting than the Sicario/Babel pitch — but Michael Cudlitz casting screams 'made-for-streaming.'
Three silent minutes following an immigrant before the second storyline collides — Webley's bifurcated structure recalls Iñárritu's Babel methodology applied to borderland inevitability. Cudlitz is a serious presence.
Three silent minutes following a lone immigrant before pivoting to parallel storylines — that's a structural ambush borrowing from Sicario's geography while staying short-form. Paul Meyers ASC as DP is real cinematography credentials for desert work.
Reviews
Webley and his team just sh*t directed it — the film is technically impeccable, and the performances land with quiet, devastating weight.