Nomadland Analysis

Nomadland (2021)

Written for the Screen, Directed and Edited by: Chloe Zhao
Starring: Frances McDormand
Won the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival, Golden Globe for Best Director, and more.

Such a beautiful film it is. I'm so happy to have watched such a good film after a long long time. The film flows like a poem, like music, like how cinema is supposed to flow. The tonality is a beautiful midground between a travel film, a drama, and a documentary. The way people are framed is super intimate - when they are telling their stories. It suddenly feels like a documentary and we feel that the stories are for real. The editing felt so conscious, and I was wondering how well the directorial voice was coming through the editing - no wonder the film is edited by the director herself. The way the film is shot - the handheld, low light shots - it makes the entire film feel so personal and intimate.

Frances McDormand is terrific in the film. Her face shows up a lot of pain that she went through. She uses it to her advantage to explore pain in characters - same with Three Billboards, and in this film too. She need not tear up or cry to show pain, she can just look somewhere for a while and we can feel the pain. The beach sequence was a terrific scene, where she just walks beside the beach and the wind blows. Such scenes can't be written. They only can be shot on location. In the screenplay, it is just two lines. In the film, it is a minute. It's cinema at its best. Wide landscapes, shot in an intimate way. One thing we look forward to in travelling is meeting people, listening to their stories and in this film this is done very well - we listen to people's stories of pain, losing their loved ones and their way of dealing with it. The film gives us hope, with a beautiful line, 'see you down the road'.