Nomadland (2020) - Beauty 'til it hurts in Zhao's poetic Americana

♥♥♥♥♥

 

A photograph of Frances McDormand in character as Fern in a deck chair drying her underwear on the plains before the mountains make up this truly delightful poster for Chloé Zhao's Nomadland

 

Fern has become a van-dwelling, "houseless" modern nomad in the wake of her husband's demise and her abandonment of the Nevadan town that they lived in. On her nomadic trails through the US she goes through travails and finds new communities.

 

Nomadland is written, co-produced, directed and edited by great Chinese-born American filmmaker Chloé Zhao (Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015)), adapting the non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (2017) by Jessica Bruder.

It is an assured and sensitive, insightful portrayal of a way of life that is foreign to most of us, which raises questions about our own choice of life as it pertains to our homes, economy, loans and debts.

Frances McDormand (Something's Gotta Give (2003)) adds another marvelous character to her luminous career and is perfect as Fern, a woman who is both tough and a survivor but also a sensitive and struggling person on her own most of the time. McDormand also co-produced the film. David Strathairn (Fracture (2007)) is the only other recognized actor in the film, which is otherwise full of mostly modern nomads playing modern nomads, several of them very moving and warm encounters. Charlene Swankie's portrayal of Swankie is especially moving.

The moving human stories that the film is rife with, which mostly rests on things that define characters, which have already taken place, are balanced against the long periods of alone-time that is life for Fern, as well as tremendous amounts of nature, as she and the other nomads have a stronger connection with nature than most regular urban-dwellers today do. This introspective appreciation of the land and the nature that makes up America is fantastic and makes up some of the best parts of Nomadland. Poetry is incorporated naturally in the narrative, and one can easily argue that this film is poetic in itself.

Joshua James Richards' (The Rider (2017)) elegant, unostentatious photography is commendable. There's inherent critique of the housing market and the 'race for the dollar' way of life, but also appreciation of the never stagnant and ever restless America, which the nomads are a part of. There's great amounts of beauty to see and encounter in Nomadland, which makes it a sorely dear experience to be had, especially on a big screen.

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 21.4 mil. $ and counting

= Big hit (returned 4.28 times its cost)

[Nomadland premiered 11 September (3 different film festivals) and runs 108 minutes. Shooting took place in South Dakota, Nevada, California, Arizona and Nebraska in the latter part of 2018 with Zhao, McDormand and crew members reportedly living out of vans during the course of the production. The film's release was ruined considerably by the China Virus pandemic. The film opened #7 to a 503k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked the following weekend at #6 and grossed 2.1 mil. $ (9.8 % of the total gross). North America was only the film's 5th biggest market. Its 3 biggest were Japan with 3.6 mil. $ (16.8 %), Australia with 3.5 mil. $ (16.4 %) and the UK with 2.6 mil. $ (12.1 %). The film has one market left to open in: Germany on 1 July. It was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 3: For Best Picture, Director and Actress. It lost Adapted Screenplay to Christopher Hampton for The Father, Cinematography to Erik Messerschmidt for Mank and Editing to Sound of Metal. It also won 4/7 BAFTA nominations, an AFI award, 4/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, 2 National Board of Review awards, 3 awards at the Venice Film Festival and countless other honors. Due to China-critical comments she made in 2013, Zhao's sensational Oscar win was censored from the citizens of China, where the film's release was also canceled. Zhao returns with Eternals (2021). McDormand returns in The French Dispatch (2021). Nomadland is certified fresh at 94 % with a 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Nomadland?

Into the Wild (2007) - Penn and Co. triumph with true-story, American odyssey

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year
+ Best American Movie of the Year + Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year + Best Road Movie of the Year

Emile Hirsch sits on the roof of an abandoned bus in Alaska and ponders existence on this serene poster for Sean Penn's Into the Wild

Into the Wild is the true story of Christopher McCandless, who as a young man in May 1990 breaks radically with his parents' suburban life and cuts himself off from everything and every one he knows to go on an American adventure as a 'Alexander Supertramp.'

Into the Wild is the 4th feature written and directed by Californian master filmmaker Sean Penn (The Crossing Guard (1995)), based on the same-titled 1996 nonfiction book of McCandless' life and journey by Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air (1997)).
Rarely does a film touch people the way that Into the Wild does, and certainly does touch me when I watch it. It gets to you like a sharp, pointed arrow with a vivacity, a fullness of life, a formidable drive and a devastating but also enormously beautiful end. This film is an absolute masterpiece.
Emile Hirsch (Killer Joe (2011)) is a star and a generational hero for his towering performance here, and his scenes with Hal Holbrook (Innocent Victims (1996, TV movie)) are among the most moving that I can recollect ever having seen in a motion picture.
The music in the film, made up of monumental, howling, acoustic and beautiful songs by Eddie Vedder (The Namesake (2006), song) and a strong score by Michael Brook (The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)) and Kaki King (How I Got Lost (2009)), is forceful, as is the exceptional cinematography by Eric Gautier (Clean (2004)). Into the Wild is a visual cornucopia of the majestic sights in America's Godly nature.
As a film about a young radical idealist and explorer, Into the Wild is out of this world, and with the release of this masterpiece and his outstanding performance in Gus Van Sant's masterpiece Milk (2008), Penn touched a height in movies that is only afforded very few certified greats.

Related posts:

Sean Penn:  Gangster Squad (2013) or, Good Men vs. Bad Men! (actor)
This Must Be the Place (2011) - Sorrentino's Nazi-hunting stoner cracker (actor)
The Tree of Life (2011) or, Mother, Father, Sharks, Dinosaurs, My Brothers, Sunflowers, the Desert, the Wind and Me (actor)
Fair Game (2010) or, The Intelligence War (actor)
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
21 Grams (2003) or, Hardcore Life (actor)
The Pledge (2001) - Maddening, realistic, unpleasant child-killer story (director)
The Crossing Guard (1995) - Penn's great, downbeat Jack Nicholson-starring drama thriller (writer/co-producer/director)
Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie (actor)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 15 mil. $
Box office: 56.2 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.74 times the cost)
[Into the Wild premiered 1 September (Telluride Film Festival, Colorado, USA) and runs 148 minutes. Shooting took place in Washington, including Seattle,  Oregon, including Portland, Arizona, Alaska, South Dakota, California, Atlanta, Georgia, Nevada and in Mexico from April - November 2006. SPOILER The final bus section of the film was shot in Alaska about 50 miles (80 km) from the actual site, using a replica of the real bus. The film opened #33 to a 212k $ first weekend in 4 theaters, a huge 53k $ cinema average, and widened to peak at #14 and in 660 cinemas in North America, where it grossed 18.3 mil. $ (32.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 13.5 mil. $ (24 %) and Italy with 8 mil. $ (14.2 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Holbrook), lost to Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, and Best Editing, lost to The Bourne Ultimatum. The film won 1/2 Golden Globe nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for a César award and a David di Donatello award, a Grammy, won two National Board of Review awards and many other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal to its rating here. It is currently #181 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250 list, sitting between Wild Tales (2014) and Life of Brian (1979). Penn as filmmaker returned with the ridiculed The Last Face (2016). Hirsch returned in Speed Racer (2008). Into the Wild is certified fresh at 82 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Into the Wild?

Easy Rider (1969) or, The 1960s Ride Again!

♥♥♥

An iconic poster for Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider in a ghastly yellow

Two friends complete a drug deal and start a road trip on motorcycles, which leads them to a hippie collective, a New Orleans jail, a bad trip in a cemetery and more.

Easy Rider, written by Terry Southern (Barbarella (1968)), Peter Fonda (Enemy (1990)) and co-writer-director Dennis Hopper (Chasers (1994)), is one of the most iconic and sensation-stirring American films of the 20th century and the single most responsible film for marshaling in the New Hollywood period of young filmmakers with license to experiment that enriched the cinematic output of the country in the 1970s. - But does that naturally entail that it is a masterpiece or even a great film? I think not.
When Jack Nicholson (The Last Tycoon (1976)) enters Easy Rider, it attains a power and a natural center that it lacks before his arrival. SPOILER But then he dies, and later the two leads (Fonda and Hopper) go the same way.
The good things in Easy Rider, principally, are the scenes of driving and nature, which contains fantastic beauty, along with a few other scenes such as the cemetery trip scene. The music in the film and portrait of its time is also a huge part of its lingering attraction. However, I don't feel any romantic connection to the late-60s era or the hippies the film idolize, and perhaps as a consequence, ultimately, Easy Rider continues to strike me as a somewhat boring and overrated film with a very thin plot.

Related posts:

Dennis Hopper: Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
24 - season 1 (2001) - TV action milestone (actor)
Blue Velvet (1986) or, The Strange World (actor) 
Apocalypse Now (1979) Redux version - The horror of war (actor)

Watch the intro from the film here

Cost: Listed as 360k $ - but additional music license cost of 1 mil. $ rises the overall cost to 1.36 mil. $
Box office: 60 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Easy Rider premiered 12 May (Cannes) and runs 95 minutes. Fonda and Hopper developed the film as a deeper reflection upon their times and the youth revolt and personal experiences on films such as The Wild Angels (1966) and The Trip (1967). Nicholson's part was initially to have gone to Rip Torn, who became antagonized by Hopper's distaste for Texans and 'rednecks', being a Texan himself. In the 1990s, he successfully sued Hopper for defamation, after he had claimed on Jay Leno's late night talk show that Torn had pulled a knife on him as part of their disagreement. The record of Hopper's wild and self-aggrandizing behavior during the making of Easy Rider is long and elaborate. Shooting took place from March - May 1968 in Louisiana, New Mexico, California and Arizona. The cast and crew reportedly held their wrap party and then found out that they still needed to shoot the final scene. Hopper initially proposed a 220 minute cut of the film, which is not in existence today, just as other lengthy cuts of the film are deemed lost. The film became the 3rd highest-grossing film of 69, making 41.7 mil. $ (69.5 % of the total gross) in North America. It got nominated for 2 Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Nicholson), lost to Gig Young in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, and Best Original Screenplay, lost to William Goldman for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA; it won a Best First Work award in Cannes and more. Easy Rider is certified fresh at 89 % with an 8 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Easy Rider?

Winter's Bone (2010) - Lawrence stands out in Granik's melancholic adaptation

♥♥♥♥

 

Jennifer Lawrence hovers like an eagle on the poster for Debra Granik's Winter's Bone

A 17 year-old girl, who is caring for her two younger siblings and sick mother, gets a big problem on her hands, when her alienated father doesn't appear in court. To keep their house, she now has to find out what has become of him.

Winter's Bone is an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's (The Ones You Do (1992)) same-titled 2006 novel, written by Anne Rosellini (My Abandonment (2017)) and co-writer-director Debra Granik (Down to the Bone (2004)). It's a film filled with tristesse, unusual as the piece of outskirts social-realism Americana that it is, taking place in the rural Ozarks, Missouri in central USA, where even food can be a luxury.
Jennifer Lawrence (The Devil You Know (2013)) is a cool heroine as Ree, - likely a performance that locked her for her subsequent Hunger Games (2012; 2013; 2014; 2015) mass-stardom. Winter's Bone is a nuanced, fine and only slightly dreary film.

 

Jennifer Lawrence gives an interview to the BBC about the film in this video

 

Cost: 2 mil. $

Box office: 13.7 mil. $

= Huge hit

[Winter's Bone premiered January 21 (Sundance) and runs 100 minutes. Filming took place on location in Missouri in just 25 days from February - March 2009. The film opened #35 to 84k $ in 4 theaters, peaking at #16 and 141 theaters (different weekends though), playing for an unusually long 45 weeks in North America, where it grossed 6.5 mil. $ (47.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Sweden with 1.3 mil. $ (9.5 %) and the UK with 0.9 mil. $ (6.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film 4/4 stars, two notches better than this review. The film got nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: Best Picture (lost to The King's Speech), Actress (Lawrence), lost to Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Supporting Actor (John Hawkes), lost to Christian Bale for The Fighter, and Adapted Screenplay, lost to The Social Network. The film was also nominated for a Golden Globe, won AFI's Movie of the Year award, won 2 Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for another 5, was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the year's ten best films, won the Grand Jury Prize and the screenwriting award in Sundance, as well as many many other nominations, awards and top 10 listings. Winter's Bone is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Winter's Bone?

On the Road (2012) - Salles' near-perfect adaptation

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Road Movie of the Year

This poster for Walter Salles' On the Road looks like a really good book

Aspiring author Sal spends the years from 1948-50 with his best, but very selfish friend Dean, on the roads of America, devoted to their experiences and his writings.

On the Road is the grand-scaled, very impressive adaptation of great American author Jack Kerouac's (Big Sur (1962)) same-titled 1957 novel, adapted by Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries/Diarios de Motocicleta (2004)) and directed by Brazilian master filmmaker Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries).
The film features a killer ensemble cast: Amy Adams (The Master (2012)), Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises (2007)) and Steve Buscemi (Fargo (1996)) and more appear in minor parts; and both Sam Riley (Control (2007)) and a very erotically charged Garrett Hedlund (Pan (2015)) lead with strength and conviction. Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia (2011)) is outstanding in raging despair, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight (2008)) is a vivid sex kitten.
The film is terrifically shot by Eric Gautier (Into the Wild (2007)) and successfully recreates the feeling of being on the road, being young and free, a fluid traveler moving ahead without a clear destination, which is its greatest feat. The protagonist is an observer who writes a lot, and this may put some audiences off due to its apparent passivity, but the film doesn't focus on Sal's texts, and I find that it only gets better on a second watch.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 8.7 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[Kerouac wrote a letter to Marlon Brando in 1957, because he wanted him to portray Sal in a movie version of On the Road. This never happened, and several other movie versions of the book were prepared and fell through in the decades until Salles' film. Since 1979, master filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola bought the rights to the novel and has fruitlessly been attempting to adapt it. Salles did extensive research on Kerouac, the period and artists in preparation, and Rivera reportedly completed 20 drafts of the script before shooting. The cast were sent on 'beatnik bootcamp' for three weeks before filming, getting taught in the works, artists and the period, and watching inspirational movies like Breathless/À Bout de Souffle (1960) and Shadows (1959). Shooting took from August 2010 to some time in the coming winter in Canada, the US, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. The film premiered in competition in Cannes, but received mixed reviews and only grossed 0.7 mil. $ (8 % of the total gross) in North America. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France (2.7 mil./31 %) and Brazil (1.5 mil. $/17.2 %). On the Road is rotten at 43 % with a 5.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of On the Road?

Dead Man (1995) - Jarmusch's bold, poetic, rich Americana masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

Johnny Depp is Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man

QUICK REVIEW:

William Blake arrives with train to the little town of Machine, where he doesn't get the job that he had expected. Instead he gets into a fix that makes him kill a man, and he is thereafter hunted through the wilderness with an Indian named Nobody by his side.

Dead Man is a fairytale-like, postmodern, philosophical western in B/W (photographed by the great Robby Müller (Breaking the Waves (1996))) with a superb ensemble cast, led by Johnny Depp (Donnie Brasco (1997)): Gary Farmer (Twist (2003)) as Nobody, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future (1985)), Lance Henriksen (Aliens (1986)), John Hurt (The Elephant Man (1980)), Robert Mitchum (The Night of the Hunter (1955)) - in his last screen performance, - Iggy Pop (Persepolis (2008), voice), Gabriel Byrne (Miller's Crossing (1990)), Jared Harris (Mad Men (2009-12)) and Mili Avital (The Human Stain (2003)). - And that's not even all of them!
Neil Young (Year of the Horse (1997)) has composed an outstanding score, which perfectly compliments the psychedelic feel that master filmmaker writer-director Jim Jarmusch's (Down by Law (1986)) characters spark.
Whether Dead Men hits you like a spiritual kick in the gut or as a more intellectually meaningful offering, the film is a rich, rewarding and very unique experience. - And one that requires an open mind.
It is possibly Ohioan Jarmusch's best film, equaled perhaps only by Mystery Train (1989).

Related reviews:

Jim Jarmusch: Broken Flowers (2005) - Hip search for son and self with Jarmusch and Murray
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) - Pleasant, precious vignette sit-down with some wonderful people  
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Whitaker serves ancient samurai justive in Jarmusch's cool treat 
Top 10: The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Watch the long trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 1 mil. $ (US only)
= Some uncertainty
[But most likely Dead Man should, appallingly, be counted as a huge flop. I have only a few international figures for the film's performance: It made 0.8 mil. $ in Australia, and in France, Germany and the Netherlands together, around 600k paid admission to see it. The film premiered in Cannes, and it is highly esteemed among Native Americans, who regard it as an extremely well-researched depiction of their different tribal cultures, use of different native languages etc. Critics reacted very differently to the film: Roger Ebert gave it a paltry 1½ stars; it seems he didn't understand the film at all! - While others, like Greil Marcus, Jonathan Rosenbaum and A. O. Scott, recognize it as a masterpiece.]

What do you think of Dead Man?
Do you think it is Jarmusch's greatest film?

Crazy Heart (2009) or, The Weary Kind

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Music Movie of the Year

A scruffy-looking Jeff Bridges with a guitar on the poster for Scott Cooper's Crazy Heart

QUICK REVIEW:

Bad Blake lives the destructive life on the road as a touring musician, which comes with his name and the shitty venues he gets booked at. He meets a wonderful woman in Santa Fe, but SPOILER the booze gets to become fateful for him.

Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski (1998)), winning his only Oscar so far for the effort, acts well, and so does his co-stars,Colin Farrell (Minority Report (2002)) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Secretary (2002)), who was Oscar-nominated for her performance.
The music by T Bone Burnett (Walk the Line (2005)) and Stephen Bruton (Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogdanovich in Archer City, Texas (1991)) is terrific, and Burnett also won the Best Original Song Oscar along with Ryan Bingham (The Bridge (2013-14)) for their The Weary Kind.
Crazy Heart is a fine, warm, down-played Americana serving, a romantic drama in a blanket of country music. However, it is actually so subdued in its languid pace that it just manages to get by on its charm without getting boring. The suspense curve is almost non-existing.
It is the successful debut of Virginian Scott Cooper (Out of the Furnace (2013)), who adapted the script from a 1987 novel by Thomas Cobb. Cooper is busy now with the big gangster movie Black Mass (2015) about Whitey Bulger.

Related posts:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 47.4 mil. $
= Big hit
[Funded by Country Music Television, the film was pitched for a direct-to-DVD-release, but was then picked up for theatrical release by Fox Searchlight Pictures and made 39.4 mil. (83 % of its gross) in the US, where it hit home with a lot of people.]

What do you think of Crazy Heart?
Other fine country music movies?