Nomadland (2020) - Chloe Zhao

Nomadland is just the latest proof of Zhao's talents as an effective dramatist yet thematically the film is facile, incapable, or unwilling to examine the key political-economic root at the core of its story. The film recognizes the importance of stability to the human psyche yet it largely refuses to acknowledge the systemic factors at play, opting instead to lean heavily into diasporic malaise and the reverberations of grief surrounding the tragedy at the center of its story. These individuals are portrayed as people of action, not reactionary but responsive to things they can't control, and the film's treatment ascribes to them a notion of autonomy, which isn't as transparent in the text as their search for peace. Nomadland outright ignores the political-economic reality, namely the destabilization of the social at the hands of an economic system that subjugates labor under capital interests. It regulates any such assertions to subtext, with the film's text being more a film about overcoming grief, the denouement suggesting that Fran's material circumstances are largely ones under her control, almost as if the film readily admits it doesn't want to explicitly address the social-economic implications of its storyline. Zhao's formal sensibilities exude Heidegger's ontological conception of being - Dasein, with McDormant's central protagonist navigating the paradox of living with others while ultimately being alone in oneself. It's unsurprisingly a strong and affecting performance, and where the film is by far at its best. The elemental world is given weight throughout the film's narrative schematics. The dramatics are juxtaposed with more meditative moments of grandeur, and in these moments Nomadland effectively transcends the material conditions of its principle character reaching a spiritual ethos. A story of grief, despondency, and the search for a sense of being, Chloe Zhao's talents as a dramatist and naturalist filmmaker are undeniable once again with Nomadland. What is pretty alarming though is just how toothless this film is when it comes to excavating the underlying systemic issues, especially when considering how acute the film is emotionally about the impact it has on so many disparate individuals