At the Cannes Film Festival last year, there were not one but two genre-bending, metaphorical movies that revisited the deadly AIDS crisis of the 1980s.

The first was Palme d’Or laureate Julia Ducournau’s explosive and overzealous body horror flick, Alpha, in which the infected became living and breathing human sculptures, their skin hardening into marble that looked real enough to cut into a fabulous kitchen countertop.

The second and less buzzy feature was debuting Chilean director Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (La misteriosa mirada del flamenco), which walked away with the top prize in the fest’s Un Certain Regard sidebar. In this touchingly surreal story, AIDS is an unknown plague transmitted by looking too lovingly into the eyes of the infected, causing turmoil among the inhabitants of a remote mining town in the desert.

Céspedes captures this strange phenomenon through the viewpoint of a preteen girl, Lidia (Tamara Cortés), who lives with her trans mother, the titular Flamenco (Matías Catalán), in a ramshackle bordello populated by a rowdy gang of sex workers. The place is run by Mama Boa (Paula Dinamarca), a tough-loving madam who doesn’t mind giving a difficult client a good kick in the nuts from time to time.

It’s certainly a unique setting, and some of what happens in Flamingo seems too outlandish to be true. But things suddenly turn tragic in the last act, and what felt frivolous or folkloric becomes deadly serious when Lidia is forced to face what’s happening around her.

Until then, the story follows the pugnacious 11-year-old as she’s harassed by boys at the local swimming hole while witnessing her mom’s declining health at home. Their lives are soon at risk when one of Flamenco’s clients, Yovani (Pedro Muñoz), shows up with symptoms of the disease and blames her for his sickness, threatening to take revenge.

The gunslinging miner belongs to a band of angry men who show up at the bordello and surround it like a posse from the Wild West. But instead of delivering the usual shootout at that point, Céspedes transforms what could have been a nasty brawl into a gentle snuggle-fest between the sex workers and their unlikely lovers.

In the world of Flamingo, macho attitudes and transphobia give way to tenderness, especially during a bittersweet wedding sequence in which Mama Boa marries the bearded old prospector, Clemente (Luis Dubó). Another memorable scene involves an annual talent contest in which Flamenco lip-syncs a Latino ballad in full drag, mesmerizing all the hardened miners who’ve come to watch her perform.

Despite its bleak subject, there’s plenty of joy and warmth on display in Céspedes’ first feature, which is reminiscent of other recent Chilean fare like Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun and Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, both of which inventively combined genre plots with LGBTQ themes. Flamingo goes overboard on the surrealism at times, but by ultimately focusing on how Lidia comes to terms with the reality of the AIDS epidemic, it delivers a solid emotional blow by the end.

Shot in a pared-down but colorful style by Angello Faccini, Flamingo makes the most out of its limited budget and picturesque locations, which include an arid mountain range straight out of a spaghetti Western. Most of the action takes place in a dusty one-horse town whose residents have chosen to open themselves up both sexually and spiritually, paying the ultimate price for their tolerance.

After the death of her husband, Emily (Kelly Marie Tran) doesn’t know what to do. Her daughter Gracie (Aria Kim) hasn’t spoken in the six months since her father’s passing, and seems to be withdrawing more and more every day. Her mother-in-law, Nai Nai (Fiona Fu), copes with her son’s death through traditional Chinese spirituality, which she shares with her granddaughter. But Emily is Vietnamese and doesn’t speak the language. It’s just now that her husband is gone that Emily is forced to confront the cultural gap between her and those closest to her. Only showing her grief privately, Emily emotionally isolates herself, hoping that pushing forward will heal all the pain. But starting over in Rock Springs, Wyoming, proves to be more difficult than she could have ever anticipated. 

Nai Nai warned against moving during “Ghost Week”, a time when the barrier between the spirit world and our world comes down. In Chinese culture, the mourning families must pray for their departed loved ones, guiding their souls to peace in the afterlife. Mourning is communal, and as families share their grief, they’re supposed to find healing together. But Nai Nai also warns Gracie about “Hungry Ghosts”, those who die scared and alone with no family members to guide them home.

When Gracie steals an old doll from a garage sale, it puts her in contact with a spirit she hopes is her father. But writer and director Vera Miao has other plans, using Gracie and her family to tell a multi-generational story of racism, grief and trauma. When Gracie disappears into the woods, past and present collide as she comes face to face with the spirits of dead miners. And what began as a small tale expands to become a confrontation with generational sadness and spiritual unrest.

In 1885, on the same land where Emily chose to restart her life with her family, a tragedy occurred. A village of Chinese migrant men was massacred and their homes destroyed. At least 28 Chinese miners were killed that day, with other sources indicating a death toll of 40 or 50 people. Only 15 survived with injuries at the hands of angry white settlers who resented that the local mining company had employed them in the first place. These settlers were never prosecuted for what is now known as the worst mass shooting in Wyoming history. To many viewers, this film will be an introduction to this historic tragedy. 

Miao takes us back to that day, showing us a tight-knit group of miners with Ah Tseng (Benedict Wong) and He Yew (Jimmy O. Yang) at the center. Before the attacks begin, they discuss their homeland and new identity as Americans. Though Ah Tseng has been in the country longer — having worked on the railroads — he seems to doubt the idea that the United States could really be called home. The murderous white settlers only solidify his doubt before his untimely death. The fallen men are piled into a mass grave in the woods right outside Emily’s new house.

Cinematographer Heyjin Jun cuts through the sadness with breathtaking images of forest and landscape, showcasing the beautiful land spoiled by blood and hate. Tran gives a compelling performance as a young widow adjusting to single parenthood and suddenly being the head of her household. Since her breakout performance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Tran has struggled to find meaningful roles that allow her to show her range. But she excels here as a woman haunted by her husband’s death and afraid to embrace the traditions that give her daughter comfort. She has great chemistry with newcomer Kim, a gifted young actress who manages to be expressive while rarely uttering a single word.

Rock Springs is a big swing from Miao that pays off in the end, blending drama, horror and ugly American history to create a truly heartbreaking and hopefully healing experience.

“Melania: Twenty Days to History” won over fans of the first lady at the box office this weekend, surpassing the initial opening weekend expectations to generate $7 million.

The Amazon MGM Studios film, which rolled out in over 1,500 theaters in North America, was estimated to make $5 million, which would have made it a relatively solid opening by documentary standards. But after beating expectations, it’s now the strongest start for a nonmusic documentary in over a decade, according to box office analysts.

It took the No. 3 overall spot for the weekend, following YouTuber Markiplier’s self-financed film “Iron Lung” and Sam Raimi’s “Send Help.”

While Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of domestic theatrical distribution, lauded the documentary’s “strong start,” it is still too early to call it a big win for Amazon.

The studio paid a whopping $40 million to acquire the project, which was helmed by filmmaker Brett Ratner. The studio also spent roughly $35 million on the marketing campaign, an eye-popping sum for a political documentary. Promotion for the film included projecting its trailer on the Las Vegas Sphere and designing a commemorative popcorn bucket.

The larger-than-expected haul comes despite reviewers on Letterboxd trashing the film (before seeing it), and others online sharing screenshots of theaters full of unsold tickets in cities. Critics have also largely panned the film, with outlets like The Hollywood Reporter calling it an “expensive propaganda doc” offering an “up-close and not-so-personal portrait” of the first lady.

Still, moviegoers gave the film, which was backed by the White House, a generous A when polled by CinemaScore and a 99% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The top-performing markets for “Melania” included Dallas, Orlando, Tampa, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta and West Palm Beach, according to box office analysts who shared audience metrics with NBC News. Donald Trump won Texas, Arizona and Florida in the 2024 presidential election. The documentary also mostly attracted female moviegoers, who made up about 70% of audiences.

An estimated 600,000 moviegoers saw the film over the weekend, according to EntTelligence data provided to CNBC.

In January of last year, when Amazon licensed the film, the studio said it picked up the documentary as well as a subsequent docuseries for the streaming service, “for one reason and one reason only — because we think customers are going to love it.” The deal occurred shortly after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

“This momentum is an important first step in what we see as a long-tail lifecycle for both the film and the forthcoming docu-series, extending well beyond the theatrical window and into what we believe will be a significant run for both on our service,” Wilson said in a statement Sunday.

Last weekend, the White House held a private early screening of the film for guests before Amazon rolled out the black carpet for the documentary’s Washington, D.C., premiere at the Kennedy Center on Thursday.

When asked by NBC News about who the film was for, the first lady said, “Everybody will connect on a certain level. Teenagers can go to see, young women can go to see and be inspired that they could have a family and business, as well.”