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Posted on 05/04/2021 1:35:20 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Chloé Zhao used to say she sometimes forgot she was Asian...When she was growing up in Beijing in the 1980s and ’90s, being Chinese was simply the context in which she and everyone around her existed.
A few border crossings and two decades later, she would find her way to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota — where she would eventually make her generation’s best film about the American West.
She met Lakota cowboy Brady Jandreau when he was working at a ranch and cast him in The Rider as Brady Blackburn, an injured rodeo star who struggles to find a sense of purpose after being told he can’t ride anymore. Out there in the Badlands, she recalls being the only Chinese person around, and it made her origins feel incidental to her. What was the utility of thinking of yourself as part of a group when there was no group — when it was just you? Can feeling as if you’re from nowhere be an advantage?
By the time she started shooting Nomadland in the fall of 2018, she had attracted the attention of a major star, Frances McDormand...
As it turned out, McDormand, who describes her producing career as “nascent,” had picked up the rights to Jessica Bruder’s Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, a nonfiction book about older Americans who travel the country for work. Zhao had been writing a similar project of her own, though hers was about young van lifers (“Terrible script — it wasn’t working,” she says). The reasons an older generation would opt for a pared-down life on the move fascinated the director: “It felt like fate..."
The wide-open landscapes of Arizona, California, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota have perhaps never looked as breathtaking as they do in Nomadland...
(Excerpt) Read more at vulture.com ...
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I do not like how she is being used to make a Marvel movie.
If she is doing it solely for the money, that’s one thing.
But as an initiation and usurpation in to the Hollywood vortex is more likely.
What don’t you like about her doing Eternals? MCU seems to be the epitome of movie making these days.
>>where she would eventually make her generation’s best film about the American West.
it’s a small field of competition these days
Exactly.
“Nomadland” seemed to capture the plight of the forgotten “deplorables” who were displaced by cheap Chinese slave labor. Americans who normally would have worked at the gypsum factory until retirement or had other jobs with savings and pensions were all cast aside by Wall Street in favor of higher offshore profit margins or by the “dark star” of Amazon that destroyed many small family businesses.
Many in the RV group were also seeking solitude and escape from traumatic life events that normally would have been addressed with support from family members. The families migrated apart to survive and find work where they could. This was the “selling out of America’s middle class” that Trump’s “America First” movement was directed at correcting. It was a very pro-Trump film from that perspective.
Nomadland was a terrible movie and the lowest grossing best picture in history for darn good reason.
I thought it was really good. Too depressing to be Best Picture, but the cinematography was gorgeous and the story rang true. I’ve lived in AZ for 25 years now so it was great to see a movie that was partially focused here instead of California or NYC.
Given covid last year it’s not been a normal year. If it was up to me I would have canceled this years awards. Same with next year and if 2022 is back to normal combine all 3 years together. Granted if it was also up to me Hollywood would die a slow and painful death.
Nomadland did something that most other movies now days don’t. It told a story. One thing you could say about the Nomads. They were free.
But there was a big problem with the plot. While it was easy to sympathize with the circumstances that led to Fern's life as a wandering soul she also passed up multiple chances to turn her life around, making it very difficult to feel sorry for her. If I wanted to see a travel film there are plenty of UHD videos on Youtube. For example: 4K videos of the Arizona desert.
I saw 6 out of the 8 Best Picture nominees (the 2 about Chicago and political activists I wouldn't waste my time, even for free). They were all terrible in their own ways. Worst year ever.
You’re right about that. I kept yelling at the TV for Fern to stop running from ppl and situations. She met a nice guy but the minute he wanted to get off the road she bailed. The problem wasn’t situational or the result of unforeseen circumstances. The problem was with Fern.
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