The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

If the wild West still exists anywhere in North America, it’s along the Rio Grande, the border between the U.S. and Mexico. This film, the second directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who also stars as rancher Pete Perkins, explores the emotional and geographical terrain along that great divide. A Mexican man, Melquiades Estrada, is shot by a border cop and unceremoniously abandoned in the Texas desert. The body is found, thanks to a hungry coyote, and buried in a town cemetery. Then Estrada’s friend Perkins insists that the body be disinterred, and accompanies the decaying corpse on an arduous journey through the gorgeous Mexican wilderness. 612-825-6006; www.landmarktheatres.com