“Nomadland” is one of those truly rare films where, even if it isn’t for you, you can agree that it is a masterpiece. The attention to both visual detail and character that writer/director Chloé Zhao (“Songs My Brothers Taught Me,” “The Rider”) has in this project is staggering and coupled with another career best performance from Frances McDormand (“Fargo,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”), she delivers one of the absolute best films of the year.
McDormand plays Fern who loses her job at a sheetrock plant after the plant and company town in Nevada shuts down. After her husband’s death soon after, she decides to sell her belongings and live in her van, traveling across the country during the year and staying at a RV camp and working for Amazon during the winter.
To describe “Nomadland” is to describe people. It might seem like exaggeration to say that, but so much of the film is built around people and the human experience. There is a plot, sure, but it all goes out the window in terms of typical structure. Fern is the central point and Zhao has smartly made sure that everything in the story is in service of her journey and her point of view. If something requires more time to be spent from Fern’s perspective to communicate her emotions on the matter, then more time is spent, plain and simple.
McDormand’s performance is the ultimate show of an actor at the top of their game. She still maintains the same level of roughness and toughness that her characters always have, but there’s also a sense of underlying tenderness and loneliness. It’s the kind of role where a scene of her sitting in a lake or floating down a stream, wordless, says more than any monologue ever could.
There are other characters in the film, although most interestingly, only one is another actor. David Strathairn (“Good Night, and Good Luck,” “L.A. Confidential”) plays David, another nomad who befriends Fern on her journey, but the other major characters are all real figures in the nomad community playing versions of themselves. It lends an incredible amount of authenticity to the proceedings. When Bob Wells has his speech with Fern at the end of the film, it isn’t two actors talking to each other. It feels purely like McDormand is talking to Wells and a camera happens to be there.
That kind of realism is one that most filmmakers spend their whole life trying to achieve, and yet Zhao makes it look effortless. Her attention to characterization and the little moments throughout the film make things so enrapturing and comforting. It’s a big warm hug, “Nomadland,” the kind of film that feels like a thick blanket surrounding you while it snows outside.
Zhao and Cinematographer Joshua James Richards (“The Rider,” “Songs My Brothers Taught Me”) maintain a level of closeness with these characters thanks to the difference in wide and close shots. It seems obvious but given the small enclosures of the various vans that the nomads live in and the wide-open spaces of the Amazon warehouse or just the open spaces of nature, it creates a stark contrast between the spaces that Fern inhabits.
A film like this, with subjects like nomads, can be a minefield if the director/writer isn’t careful. Numerous times in the past films with similar subjects have either been decried as poverty porn or just simple saccharine. Zhao eliminates this here thanks to her careful attention to each individual. There’s never a point where the film shows pity or sorrow to a character for their situation.
They might for things like health or a traumatic event, but at no point does the film “feel sorry” for these people because they’re nomads. Zhao never feels like she’s coddling the audience or these characters and makes it absolutely clear that them choosing this life is just as valid and noble as any other decision one could make.
“Nomadland” is a wonderfully told masterpiece of a film. It’s gorgeous to look at, serene in its atmosphere, and contains a career best performance from McDormand. Zhao has always made quality films but here she has elevated herself to one of the finest filmmakers working today and someone who will be a joy to watch for years to come. 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment