I woke up Saturday and learned that Nomadland won several awards.
I had watched it Saturday, knowing nothing about it other than it starred Frances McDormand and it was really good.
That was enough to hook me.
On the one hand, it’s a subject I know very little about, groups of mostly economically marginalized people who live as nomads in the US. They each have stories of what drove them to the situations and they are just a cut above homelessness.
That cut above is absolutely crucial and the way the film describes how the cut bonds them is spellbinding.
On other hand, the subject, views into whole different groups in our society that I have no vision to, is fascinating to me.
As I watched the acting play out, I couldn’t quite put my finger on a feeling that when the characters talked to each other there was this fuzzy line. Part of it felt like a script, part of it felt like…real I guess.
That’s what makes this film incredible. I knew cast members Frances McDormand and David Strathairn (Dolore Claiborne, League of their Own, Bourne movies). I was taken by the people I didn’t know.
And when I searched IMDB as I was watching the movie, I learned why. Almost none of them have pictures because many of them are nomads. It’s breathtaking.
Most are older and have so much to offer in perspective. There is one young man in particular who is devastatingly handsome and super interesting but may just still be a nomad and that’s what he wants.
The way the film weaves economic hardship, complicated family dynamics, true friendship and other topics around this life was almost hard to keep up with in spite of the even pace of the movie.
One of the main themes of the movie that just set me back was the idea of generically being “institutionalized”. It’s not exactly in the form of being imprisoned.
It’s more like when we choose a way of living that has plusses and minuses but it serves as some sort of escape or solace from pain it becomes ingrained. And even when presented with something different it’s painful and difficult to choose something else.
It’s an astonishing portrayal of a life with and without choice. And even when presented a hail mary choice that we may not choose it.
The last 20-30 minutes of the film literally had me in tears. Frances McDormand has a way to emote something really deep in me when she acts that finds me and my heart. She has a way with her face to transmit purely turning from expressionless thought into a smiling hello.
Revisiting unresolved pain either in our hearts or in front of our faces with family members is so rich and the script is fabulous by Chloe Zhao.
In an odd twist, she can actually do that in person because I attended a conversation with her and she was fabulous. I remember hearing this powerful, confident woman call herself “toast” when it comes to her teenage child.
She also talked at that time about how aging is so hard because the divide keeps growing from younger people (this was when Olive Kitteridge was out which was incredible). And this movie takes a pretty hard, unvarnished look at the reality of aging in our country of prosperity.
Learning about this group is both heart wrenching and, selfishly, safe. Although it does concern me that this could be a path, you just never know. I like learning about groups I’m not familiar with.
It reminds me of my dear friend Robert James work look at the avant garde world in SF, although his work is documentary style. I also appreciated it in JD Vance’s incredible book Hillbilly Elegy where he described the white working class being devastated by opiods.
I’m happy I watched it, I’m not sure if it would have changed my experience had I knew what I was getting into.
I guess it doesn’t matter.
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