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    The Parents Who Helped Shape Zohran Mamdani’s Politics

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    Zohran Mamdani’s parents, a filmmaker and a professor, gave him the foundation for his run for mayor of New York. But their own political views may open him up to attacks.When Zohran K. Mamdani took a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City on Tuesday, his parents were just as surprised as the party’s establishment. Both are accustomed to the spotlight — his mother as an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and his father as a Columbia University professor. Neither expected to be this close to the halls of power.Mr. Mamdani, 33, has credited his parents with providing him a “privileged upbringing” that included constant discussion of politics and global affairs. But at a moment of intense political fights over conflict in the Middle East, his parents’ critical views of Israel and his father’s academic work on settler colonialism and human rights could make them a target of attacks from the right.The concept of settler colonialism has become especially fraught during the war in Gaza, as some supporters of Palestinians have applied the term to Israel, which some critics say is unfair.“We hadn’t bargained for being parents of a prospective mayor,” Mahmood Mamdani, 79, the candidate’s father and a renowned professor of international affairs and anthropology, said in the couple’s Manhattan apartment the morning after the primary.Mira Nair, 67, Mr. Mamdani’s mother, directed “Salaam Bombay!,” “Mississippi Masala” and “Monsoon Wedding,” among other films. Over the past year, in between filmmaking, she has canvassed for her son and cooked biryani and chicken for him and his campaign staffers. Both parents emphasized that their son, a democratic socialist who could become the city’s first Muslim mayor, has not turned to them for political advice. But they may now find themselves drawn into the campaign nonetheless.Zohran Mamdani with Ms. Nair at his primary night celebration. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who had been leading in the polls, conceded the race as Mr. Mamdani stretched his lead in returns on Tuesday night.Shuran Huang for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Vote for Your 10 Best Movies of the Century

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      <!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>In the space below, please list up to 10 titles that you consider to be the best films released since Jan. 1, 2000. Each movie should be feature length and released commercially. If you need a starting point, we have compiled our critics’ favorites from the last 25 years on one handy […] More

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      Pedro Almodóvar, Sofia Coppola and 117 Other Famous Names Share Their Top Movies of the Century.

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      <!–> [!–> <!–> –><!–> –>and 73 more ballots from the over 500 voters who determined our list of the century’s best movies<!–> –> 100 Best Movies And more ballots from … actors  Naomi Ackie, Uzo Aduba, Casey Affleck, Joel Kim Booster, Daniel Brühl, Jemaine Clement, Richard Gadd, Tony Hale, William Jackson Harper, Naomie Harris, Sally […] More

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      Match These Books to Their Movie Versions

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      Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about books that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions, video games and more. With the summer-movie season here, this week’s challenge is focused on novels that went on to become big-screeen adventures. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the books and their filmed versions. More

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      7 Father’s Day Movies to Watch in Theaters

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      Whether you’re in the mood for dragons or a new Wes Anderson, theaters this weekend are filled with fatherly flicks.It’s tough being a dad, but you can at least be assured that you don’t have to contend with fire-breathing dragons, rooftop body slams or assassination attempts (we hope).Instead, you can enjoy watching other dads — and surrogate dads — confront those thrills this month in theaters.Here’s a roundup of what to watch with the father figure in your life.The Heartwarming‘How to Train Your Dragon’Hiccup isn’t like the other vikings. He can barely lift a battle ax, much less wield one; he’d rather tinker than trade insults with his peers, and he’s more clumsy than courageous. He is, in other words, tough for his manly-man village chief father (played by Gerard Butler), to love. But when he unexpectedly vaults to the top of his dragon-fighting training class — using mysterious means — his father is over the moon. However, when Hiccup suggests NOT killing dragons? Cue the shame. In theaters.‘Elio’Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) with Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in “Elio.”Pixar/Disney/Pixar, via Associated PressWhen your dad is a warlord, and you just want to make him proud — preferably without the need for intergalactic conquest — well, it’s not easy for either father or son. But that’s the case among Glordon, a sluglike purple alien with no eyelids, and his dad, the fearsome space ruler Lord Grigon, in the latest Pixar film “Elio.”When Glordon and the titular protagonist, 11-year-old Elio, who must negotiate with Lord Grigon to prevent him from destroying the universe, become fast friends, loyalties will be tested. Will Glordon’s dad come around when his son is kidnapped and agrees to be used as a bargaining chip? Or will he abandon the kid to fate? (Yes, this one isn’t quite out yet, but no one says you can’t buy your dad advance tickets!) In theaters June 20.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How ‘Ballerina’ Set People on Fire

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      Ana de Armas wields a flamethrower in “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina” and torches, well, a lot. Here’s how they made that sequence come to life. (And yes, the flames are mostly real.)When Chad Stahelski, best known as the driving force behind the “John Wick” franchise, was in high school he volunteered with his local fire department. Over the years the images from that experience stuck in his head, and the former stuntman started to dream up an action sequence involving lots and lots of fire.“I’m like, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I combined fire and water, and we had a flamethrower fight?” Stahelski, a producer of “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” said in a video interview. “Two guys with flamethrowers and they are going to shoot each other.” Watching an early cut of “Ballerina” he realized he had the ideal vehicle for his fire dreams: It would be a showstopper for the star assassin, Eve, played by Ana de Armas.“How do I make her look smart? How do I make her look badass? It wasn’t about fighting more guys,” he said. “It’s like, OK, let’s give her something that really shows a skill set. And that’s when we went to fire.”The result is a bravura third-act set piece in which Eve torches her enemies in an Alpine village, going flamethrower to flamethrower with a massive villainous henchman named Dex (Robert Maaser). Instead of using digital flames, “Ballerina,” directed by Len Wiseman, mostly went for the real thing. According to Stahelski, 90 to 95 percent of the fires onscreen are “unenhanced real burns.”To accomplish this, Stahelski called in an expert in the world of movie fire, the stuntman Jayson Dumenigo, who developed a long-lasting protective burn gel for stunt performers that recently won him an honor from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Even Dumenigo was skeptical they could accomplish what Stahelski had in mind when he first heard the pitch.Ana de Armas uses a real flamethrower as a weapon in “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina.”Murray Close/LionsgateWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      At the Tribeca Festival, Standouts Come From Near and Far

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      A documentary about a New York restaurant and a Korean film about dine-and-dashers are among the standouts in this year’s festival.“You have to be used to change in New York,” Matthew Broderick remarks in “Raoul’s, a New York Story,” a documentary highlight of this year’s Tribeca Festival. The film centers on the celebrated French bistro, which opened in Soho in 1975 amid a cultural renaissance and became a fixture for local artists. Since then, survival of the richest has all but erased la vie bohème from the neighborhood in favor of a catwalk of retail storefronts — though Raoul’s is still standing, its arty interior nearly unmodified.To Broderick, that’s just life in the city. “Everything we hold incredibly dear,” he says in an interview in the film, “took over for something that somebody else held dear.”His remarks could very well be a slogan for the Tribeca Festival. Its obsession with novelty has, in recent years, made it an almost manically multifarious affair. Alongside movies, this year’s edition — which runs Wednesday through June 15 — will host video games, audio storytelling and an immersive program stamped with a catalog of acronyms: A.R., V.R., A.I. While festivals like Cannes are steeped in tradition, Tribeca is eager to be seen as a celebration of transformation, a festival of the future.The zeal with which Tribeca pushes forward can feel exciting, but like an overactive online shopper, it also generates clutter. It’s hard to find the gems. Sampling this year’s lineup, I found that the most memorable world premieres sorted into two subsets: the near and the far. International standouts come from Korea, India and Chile — a long way from the Triangle Below Canal Street. Then there are the local discoveries, capturing a New York spirit that aligns with the festival’s setting.Straddling both categories is “Raoul’s,” which tells the story of the Soho canteen by tracing its origins to Alsace, France, and then chronicling the Raoul men’s travels in Bali, Indonesia. The documentary was shot over a decade by Greg Olliver alongside Karim Raoul, who took over the restaurant’s day-to-day operations after his father, the founder Serge Raoul, suffered a stroke. As such, the film is as much a portrait of a local institution as it is a tale of a father and a son, exploring notions of legacy, heritage and what it means to sideline personal dreams for family obligations.A scene from Yang Jong-hyun’s film “People and Meat.”via Tribeca FestivalWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Renée Victor, Actress Who Voiced Abuelita in ‘Coco,’ Dies at 86

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      She had many memorable roles in her decades-long career, including Lupita in the television series “Weeds.”Renée Victor, best known for voicing the strict but loving grandmother in the Pixar film “Coco,” died Friday night at her home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. She was 86.The cause was lymphoma, a representative for Ms. Victor confirmed on Sunday.Ms. Victor appeared in a number of television series through her decades-long career, including as Lupita on the comedy “Weeds.” But her most well-known role came in 2017 as the grandmother in “Coco,” which follows a 12-year-old boy in Mexico who is transported to the land of the dead.In a post on social media, Pixar said it was “heartbroken” about Ms. Victor’s death. “We will always remember you,” the company added, possibly referring to the signature song in “Coco.”Renée Victor was born on July 25, 1938, in San Antonio. She was raised in a traditional Catholic family and went to an all-girls school. When she was 10, Ms. Victor danced in a production of the opera “Carmen,” according to the entertainment database IMDb.Ms. Victor’s early career included a run as a singer and dancer at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas, according to IMDb. She went on to do more stage work internationally, including in Australia, Europe and Latin America.Ms. Victor later returned to Los Angeles and hosted the local talk show “Pacesetters,” a public affairs program. She also worked as a translator and interpreter at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as for the BBC. In 1996, Ms. Victor starred in the short film “Libertad,” portraying a matriarch fighting to keep her fractured family together. The next year, she played the Hispanic translator in Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle.” She had roles in two other films with Mr. Duvall: “Assassination Tango” and “A Night in Old Mexico.”The director Frank Aragon said Ms. Victor was deft at balancing humor and drama in a way that “unleashes colorful, quirky personas that tickle the funny bone.” She also played the grandmother in the 2014 horror film “Paranormal Activity 5: The Marked Ones.” Her character was originally meant to die midway through the movie, according to Ms. Victor’s IMDb biography, but studio executives decided against that fate because “she’s too lovable and the audience won’t accept it.”She also had recurring roles on the shows “ER,” “Dead to Me” and “Snowpiercer.”In an interview in 2017 about her role in “Coco,” Ms. Victor said that the film would bring a broader awareness of Mexican culture to those who “don’t know enough” about it.Of doing voice-over work, she said, “I love it, because a microphone doesn’t care what you look like.”She added, “It’s what you’re projecting into that microphone that’s important.”She is survived by her two daughters, Raquel and Margo Victor. More