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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nSince September of last year when the film won top prizes at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, it has been clear that Chloe Zhao\u2019s \u201cNomadland\u201d would dominate awards season. Mind you, awards season itself was in question, with all the delays and compromises that affected all institutions in the last year. But whenever awards season was going to take place, \u201cNomadland\u201d was going to be there to pounce on it and devour its many accolades. Now the film has opened, both in theaters and streaming on Hulu (try to see it in theaters if you can, though with my work schedule I had to settle for Hulu), and it\u2019s frankly it\u2019s not doing too well at the box office. But I have a feeling that things are going to change this coming weekend with the Golden Globe Awards, and even more in a few weeks when Oscar nominations are announced. People are going to want to see this film that is all over those programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a widow from a mining town so economically downtrodden, its zip code was recently decommissioned. Unable to find work and seeing little value in her house, she sets out on a new life living out of her van. It\u2019s no ramshackle operation \u2013 she makes it rather homey, given the circumstances \u2013 but nobody is going to mistake this thing for a full-scale mobile home. Characters throughout the film debate whether she should be counted as \u201chomeless,\u201d and there\u2019s a good case on both sides of the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s no one central conflict or storyline to this movie, we\u2019re simply along for the ride with Fern as she bounces around from place to place. Other characters are almost entirely other nomads. There\u2019s David (David Strathairn, much more subtle here than with his usual broad\/theatrical roles), who becomes Fern\u2019s boyfriend of sorts, convincing her at one time to move to a small town and become a waitress. Bob (Bob Wells) is the prophetic leader of the nomad community who sees the movement growing as the economy continues to tank. The film is set ten years ago, and one can\u2019t help but wonder how it will fare in this era, maybe even because of this movie. Swankie (a mononymous actress named Swankie) is a seasoned nomad determined to not let life pass her by. You may have noticed that most of these characters are named for their actors. Fern may very be well be short for Frances (it\u2019s got the consonants in the right order), and there\u2019s a quick mention of a reservation being under M-C-D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As played by McDormand, Fern is a memorable character, but she\u2019s also incredibly relatable. Her van could be parked across the street from your house and you would consider her an unofficial neighbor. There\u2019s no swinging-for-the-fences Oscar baiting here, which ironically is what people respect about the performance and why they want to reward it. McDormand has a Best Actress Oscar all but in the bag at this point, and it\u2019s worth mentioning that I could also see Strathairn getting into the Best Supporting Actor race and maybe even Swankie for Best Supporting Actress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not much happens in \u201cNomadland\u201d besides simple conversations and contemplative looks at scenery. Yet so much passion is put into every scene and shot that it seems like there\u2019s zero fat on this movie. It\u2019s like reading Shakespeare \u2013 it\u2019s probably not high on the list of things you \u201cwant\u201d to do, but if you push yourself to take it in, you\u2019ll appreciate its brilliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: B<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NOTE: The film\u2019s R rating for \u201csome full nudity\u201d is a joke. There\u2019s about three seconds where Fern bathes in a lake. I highly doubt that any kid who can handle a PG-13, heck, PG movie can\u2019t handle this scene. While I don\u2019t realistically see many kids clamoring to see this movie, I don\u2019t think it should be disqualified from family viewing based strictly on its rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNomadland\u201d is playing in theaters and available for streaming on Hulu. The film is rated R for some full nudity. Its running time is 107 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver Since September of last year when the film won top prizes at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, it has been clear that Chloe… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":47536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}