Blurred Lines and the Beauty of 'Nomadland'
Blurred Lines and the Beauty of 'Nomadland'
#119: "Nomadland," "I Care A Lot," "Blood Simple," "The Nice Guys"
Edition 119:
Hey movie lovers!
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In this week’s newsletter: We’re looking at the blurred lines between documentary and narrative films, through the lens of Oscar favorite Nomadland. On the streaming front we’ve got a hit Netflix thriller, a buzzy HBO documentary and one of the best popcorn movies of all time. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” apparently we’re still giving Zack Snyder blank checks to make his particular…ehem…brand of movies.
Nomadland
(Hulu)
One of the least discussed trends over the past couple decades of movies is the blurred lines between documentary and narrative filmmaking. Until about 30 years ago this was no concern. Documentaries were dry, educational and mostly archival affairs, while films were the grand “dream factory.” One told true stories in a boring way, the other fantastical stories in an exciting way.
No longer. Documentaries like Free Solo and Boys State in recent years are as cinematic as any narrative feature, from the sweeping cinematography to the dramatic story arcs, and we’ve seen fictional films tell real life stories in a way that can feel more true than a documentary could ever be — think of the vulnerability of Steve Jobs that the man himself would’ve never admitted, or the drama of Apollo 13 that could’ve never been captured.
These days, either format can be “cinema” (a word Martin Scorsese would be proud of me for using).
When done well, cinema is a lens through which we see the world in a different way. When done REALLY well, it can affix that lens permanently to our worldview and change the way we see the world forever.
That introduction helps contextualize the often-undefinable work of Chloé Zhao. People weren’t quite sure what to make of her excellent 2017 effort The Rider, which combined both fiction and non-fiction elements to powerfully tell the story of a cowboy trying to come of age after a near fatal head injury.
In Nomadland, she’s proven her style can scale up to include a star like Frances McDormand and veteran character actor David Strathairn in a world of modern day, van-dwelling nomads. Every other character is a non-actor playing themselves on screen, and in many instances their dialogue is both framed and executed like a documentary interview. Much of the interactions within scenes appear to be improvised, though I’m not sure that’s the right word for it if non-actors are behaving as they normally would if there were no cameras there.
The construction makes the viewer experience full total and authentic immersion as they discover this new world. When a character explains why he or she decided to become a nomad, for example, we feel a deeper level of empathy because it’s not some line written by a screenwriter, it’s that person’s actual ethos.
The film is based on a non-fiction book of the same name, which focused on an aging generation decimated by the Great Recession after 2008 who cannot retire traditionally and had to travel around taking up seasonal work across the country where they could. The text has a lot to say about the victims of American capitalism, and the escape from the hamster wheel of corporate ladders.
That’s deep source material, but Zhao does not approach it from an overtly political or preachy point of view. She chooses to show-not-tell the day-to-day lives of these people, rather than impose some moral high ground. So it’s basically vérité documentary filmmaking, just with two actors and a plot layered on top.
McDormand especially deserves credit for being such a generous performer in that regard, deferring to her scene partners and supporting them to the point where they shine in most scenes while her understated presence anchors the whole thing in place. Then when she’s called upon to take the movie on her shoulders, she does so effortlessly and exceptionally.
She plays Fern, a woman who has lost her husband, her home and quite literally her entire town. (the zip code was discontinued after the factory shut down). She’s on a mission to figure out what her place is in the world after the tragedy, finding an unlikely companion in Strathairn’s Dave. But their story often runs second or third priority to an exploration of the subculture, where the nomads park and what they eat and how they take care of their vans and how they go to the bathroom (I do not mean that last one metaphorically).
The result is something like making an impressionist painting out of a photograph. Wide angle cameras pull in close to characters so we can take in both the details of their faces and the grand vistas of nature behind them. We feel what they feel. It’s deeply affecting. And when it was over I certainly looked at the world a little differently.
The irony is not lost on me that the great avatars of the forgotten middle America experience are a Chinese filmmaker (last two projects Nomadland and The Rider) and an actress who has lived in New York City since the 1970s (last two projects Nomadland and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri). Don’t for one second think their lack of personal experience with the material led to anything other than the most respectful and real portrayal on the big screen.
The more surprising element is that this movie is the current favorite to win Best Picture. It couldn’t be further from a “Hollywood” movie. But in an era where campaigning for an Oscar is as important as having the right candidate, smaller and more earnest films like Moonlight or The Shape of Water become the most difficult films to criticize.
And the least surprising element? That Zhao, one of the most promising and exciting young filmmakers working today, has chosen for her next project Eternals, a blockbuster superhero movie set in space. Sigh. If she can find a way to make cinema out of that, and teach me something about the human condition while Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek and Kumail Nanjiani and Kit Harrington are shooting lightning bolts out of their fingers at each other, then she’ll really proven to be one of the greatest directors of this new generation.
Something New
I Care A Lot (Netflix): If you’re like me, and Rosamund Pike’s character from Gone Girl still haunts your dreams, then you must’ve been excited (and a little frightened) to find her going full psycho mode in a new movie, which was firmly fixed at No. 1 on on the Netflix top ten for the last several days.
It’s a pretty clever concept, and the potential was there for a thoughtful cultural critique about the way this country commodifies the elderly, but instead it steers extremely hard into a full-on spy/action genre movie, pulpy to the point of ridiculousness.
Which, honestly, is Netflix’s sweet spot. With all respect to Netflix’s emergence as an awards juggernaut, the service is best when it provides you a laugh, a thrill and a meme, something you can enjoy in the background or watch while unwinding at the end of the day. This is exactly that, and nothing more.
Allen v. Farrow (HBO Max): This four-part docuseries about the marriage of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow will be released week-by-week, so expect at least a few lines here after each episode to debrief.
The first installment was more damning for Allen than I had anticipated, even though there weren’t really any new revelations so far. Allen clearly has an inappropriate affection for young girls, and even if it comes off more as him being a weirdo and a terrible father rather than an outright pedophile, it will be impossible for this definitive retelling not to permanently stain his legacy. I’m curious what three more hours of content could actually reveal.
Something Old
Blood Simple (1984, HBO Max): Before she was a cornerstone in the firmament of Hollywood, before she was taking home an Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, or taking home her other Oscar for Fargo, or stealing scenes in awesome movies for the past three decades, Frances McDormand was just an out-of-work stage actor in New York, who scored a leading role in a tiny indie written and directed by these two quirky brothers.
This Texas-set neo-noir is one of the most fully realized film debuts in cinema history, establishing McDormand and the Coen brothers as major creative forces in the years to come. Not only that, but McDormand fell in love with Joel Coen during production, and the two have been together over 35 years.
Which is a great story, but for the purposes of this newsletter let’s not gloss over the fact that this movie is fantastic, combining a compelling mystery with moments of quirky fun and tense terror. I introduced this movie to a friend last week and got confirmation that it holds up brilliantly to modern audiences.
Look, Matt mentioned the Coens again. Take a shot!
Something to Stream
The Nice Guys (Hulu): I’ve seen this movie a handful of times since checking it out in theaters in 2016, and each time I revisit it I find new details and little jokes hidden in the cracks of this masterful noir story. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe display incredible comedic chemistry, and the world of 1970s Los Angeles built around them is glamorous and scandalous and decadent.
It’s one of those movie world you just want to step into and live inside (other than the fact that it’s set in and around the pornography industry…well, and the drugs and the murders…but besides that). The real credit belongs to writer/director Shane Black, who weaves the hilarious, quippy dialogue into a twisty mystery plot that’s honestly less about the destination and more about the fun we had along the way. It’s simply one of the best purely entertaining popcorn movies of all time.
Trailer Watch: Army of the Dead
Oh, so we just gonna keep throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at Zack Snyder’s fantasies? Yes, apparently we’re going to keep throwing hundreds of millions at Zack Snyder’s fantasies. Even after he held Warner Bros hostage for a massive stack of cash that ultimately produced a recut of Justice League that runs over four hours long (perhaps “cut” is the wrong word because it doesn’t seem like he left anything on the cutting room floor).
I should’ve guessed, because it’s almost March and Netflix hasn’t even begun to fill its annual quota for loud, dumb action movies like 6 Underground, Extraction or Triple Frontier. So the almighty algorithm has spit out this madlib: Dave Bautista, zombies, Las Vegas, #Syndercut. And here we are.