NBC News: 'Touching and Triggering': 'Knives Out' sparks immigration questions
With its harsh immigration storyline, 'Knives Out' draws examination by film critic and academics
When a caregiver inherits a family fortune, emotions run high in the new murder mystery “Knives Out”. At the crux of the caregiver’s angst is her exposure as a so called “anchor baby”, born in America to an undocumented Latina mother and the suspicion it casts on her family's legal status. The movie has received raved reviews and nominations for Golden Globes awards and an Oscar, but has also inspired heated questions about how to tell immigration narratives ethically and effectively.
The NBC News article, “'Touching and Triggering': 'Knives Out' sparks question of how to tell immigration stories,” points out that immigrant characters on television remain underrepresented and stereotypical, according to a study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center and Define American.
Film critics and academics such as the University of Cincinnati’s Mauricio Espinoza, an assistant professor assistant professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature/Cultural Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, weigh in on the immigration aspect of the movie and the public criticism that ensued about stereotyping immigrants in film.
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