Film Words

  Nomadland was supposed to be the last of the small independent films Chloe Zhao made before being catapulted into stardom by Marvels upcoming Eternals film, instead it has wound up bringing her widespread attention earlier than anticipated, becoming an awards juggernaut and the favourite to take home best picture at next month’s Oscars. A film like this getting so much attention is unusual, unthinkable in a pre- Moonlight world, although a starring role for Frances McDormand was always going to draw some eyes. McDormand stands alone at the centre of the film, playing a widow who has lost her house in the company town were her husband used to work, and finds herself taking a series of seasonal odd jobs to fund a perilous life in her RV. She eventually falls in with a group of Nomads who teach her the ways of unmoored living in modern America, both the practical daily work and the more difficult task of spiritually coming to terms with your situation. Most of these Nomads are ...

 Just a few words on a couple of good awards hopefuls and a couple of poor streaming releases.  Sound of Metal : Dir, Darius Marder – Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci The best of the recent crop of awards hopefuls, Ahmed plays a drummer who loses his hearing and is forced to adjust to a new reality, leaving his partner/bandmate (Cooke) and joining Paul Raci’s home for deaf youngsters with nowhere else to go. This is stunningly sensitive, well researched and filled with believable humanity from all involved. New director Darius Marder skilfully avoids the saccharine and trite narrative pitfalls that one would expect from a story like this, instead tapping into a universal fear of the entropic ways our bodies begin to fail us, leading to desperate, futile attempts to regain an idealised status quo in our constantly shifting lives.               Minari : Dir, Lee Isaac Chung – Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung, Alan Kim   An utt...