Currently available on Digital and Blu-ray.
[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Up]
This year’s Oscars brought no big surprise as Nomadland brought home three Academy Awards, including the prestigious Best Picture award. Director Chloé Zhao won for Best Director, and Frances McDormand won Best Actress for her portrayal of Fern, a grieving woman who decides to live out of her van as a nomad after losing her husband and the town she used to call home. What follows is a humanistic tale of her encounters with modern pioneers, living an alternative life in a country where the Great Recession has left behind.
Zhao’s ingenious use of professional actors and non-actors is one of the great things about this film. You will meet characters like Linda May and the lovable Swankie who actually lead these nomadic lives. Their authenticity shines through every time they’re on the screen. In their scenes with McDormand (now a three-time Oscar winner), she is so believable in the role that hers does as well.
The true star here is the cinematography. Working closely with Zhao, director of photography, Joshua James Richards captures the Americana of the deserts of the Western United States. There are many sunset scenes (technically coined as “the magic hour”) that lead to some of the most beautiful locations in the film. On the Blu-ray, the colors are rich and deep tones of the colors spectrum to the point that it becomes a character in itself. Fern is shown looking pensively into the horizon many times, and that where the scenery shows off. In one scene early in the movie, Fern is scene walking the campsite. The camera tracks her as the sun sets in the background. It’s a great scene, showing her welcoming her new life.
On the whole, the Blu-ray is relatively bare-bones, with no slipcover and just three unique features. “The Forgotten America” is a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie, plus a glimpse into the nomadic culture with the author of the original book, Jessica Bruder. There was a drive-in premiere of the film at the Telluride Film Festival. The feature, “Telluride Q & A with Frances McDormand and Chloé Zhao,” covers about 15 minutes of that event. There are also “Deleted Scenes.” This disc would’ve benefitted from a commentary from Zhao and Richards to hear their process in shooting and editing the film. Hopefully, with the big wins this award season, another more robust release is possible in the future.
KB is a native New Yorker/Midwest transplant who’s into tech, sports, and the arts, especially film and music. He still aspires to be a DJ in his other life. You can frequently catch him watching Hitchcock classics, film noir, and anything Star Wars.
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