Nomadland is a 2020 film based on the non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century. Directed by Chloé Zhao and starring Frances McDormand, the film follows a woman who, after losing everything during the Great Recession, lives as a modern-day nomad and travels by van through the American West. The film was initially intended to be released in theaters on December 4th, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Searchlight Pictures opted for a February 19th, 2021 theatrical release. However, the film is currently being screened virtually by Film at Lincoln Center, with its final screening on the 10th. All tickets are now sold out, but keep an eye out on the Film at Lincoln Center’s Twitter as they released some extra tickets earlier this week.
Tag: Film
REVIEW: I NEVER CRY
Spoilers ahead.
Isolated in the basement of my house on a Saturday night, I try to tune out the pounding music that somehow manages to penetrate the two small windows separating me from fun. The rage of the closet light that won’t turn off is getting to me, so I waste no time in beginning my foray into the Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival, by way of Piotr Domalewski’s I Never Cry.
I Never Cry is a long awaited film for the “Euro-Orphans:” the kids whose parents left countries like Poland to work in the Western powers of the UK, Ireland, France, etc. The film’s protagonist, Ola (Zofia Stafiej), is one of these kids. When her father dies in a construction accident in Ireland, she must leave her mother and disabled brother behind in Poland to retrieve his body. With only a backpack and a 
dwindling pack of cigarettes, the 17-year old girl bounces around Dublin, doing her best to thwart the different levels of bureaucracy that stand in the way of her father. Ola’s story is one of amusing despair, as she drinks around Dublin and desperately clings to the few cigarettes she finds (12 euros for a pack of cigarettes? No thanks). In this search, Ola finds she knows very little about her father, and the mission gradually becomes about understanding him rather than finding him.
In stories about grief, by now it’s a cliché for the characters to spend the course of the narrative soothing their loss by trying to figure out who the deceased “really was;” if I’ve lost you already with my trite summary, I’m sorry.
But where Domalewski succeeds in this film is the subversion of that trope, because for Ola, she can’t seem to find out anything about her father. From the man at the hiring agency, to her father’s boss, to his roommates, Ola gets nearly nothing of significance about her father. The most she learns about her father is from his mistress, a hair-dresser scraping by who shows him a framed picture that Ola’s father drew of her—“he likes to draw.” And that’s it. That’s the most we learn of Ola’s father. Domalewski holds the man of the narrative’s longing at arm’s length, trapping us in Ola’s feeling of ignorance, of lostness.
The Euro-Orphan does not get a conventional redemption here. Instead, after discovering that her father’s mistress is pregnant, Ola gives the mistress the money that her father left Ola for a car, with the hope that she uses it to go to makeup school and get a better job. Her dreams of a car mean an escape—but realizing there is no escape from her cycle of poverty, she defers her dreams to the next generation. Like Ola, the viewer isn’t left with much hope with regard to the story at hand. But we must hope with Ola that her gift to her father’s future child pays off. At best, we hope with Ola for a do-over, for a kid that has a better life in a better place.
Psych 101 tells us that between ages 40 and 65 is the stage of development in which we worry about our contribution to society, to the next generation, to the things that will outlast us. But, with our legacy ever-present in the social media era of recording everything we do, I think it’s easy to find ourselves wondering at younger and younger ages, “what world do I leave my kids?” For the generation of “savers,” I Never Cry is a brutally realistic picture of what we have to sacrifice for the rest of humankind.
REVIEW: Tenet
Christopher Nolan’s Tenet opens with a thrilling hostage sequence that introduces the film’s central concept of inverted time. Shortly after the conclusion of the sequence, we see the lead protagonist seek out a scientist who advises him, “Don’t try to understand.” As the movie progresses, you realize that this line was written in for the audience.
Tenet follows a CIA agent who must prevent World War III by manipulating and traveling backwards through time. It isn’t time travel, but it is. It’s about inverting entropy. It’s confusing. However, the character motivations that drive the main plot are straightforward enough that even though you have no idea what’s going on, you’ll still have a good time.
The film’s action sequences can be largely credited for preventing the audience from leaving the theater or turning the movie off in frustration. I personally can lose interest in a movie during long fight or chase scenes, but Tenet’s action sequences are unique and engaging because of the inverted time. Objects that are inverted move differently – cars drive backwards, bullets are caught in guns, and waves flow in reverse. And because time can be manipulated, characters can move backwards in time to revisit certain situations. And though these characters are moving normally in their own eyes, non-inverted individuals will see these characters moving in reverse. Regardless of whether you think this concept is ridiculous or intriguing, you will surely appreciate the dedication of the cast and crew to the filmmaking process. Some scenes featuring time manipulation were filmed forwards and backgrounds. The composer, Ludwig Göransson created music that would sound the same forwards and backwards. Although the film is easy to criticize because of its debatably unnecessary complexity, there are just so many layers to the film that make the act of watching it such an immersive experience.
Furthermore, this is Nolan’s first film starring a nonwhite lead. John David Washington shines – he’s suave, funny, and has a strong moral compass. Some of Nolan’s past films have come under rightful criticism for only featuring underdeveloped female characters, and Tenet has come under scrutiny for presenting its female lead as a damsel in distress. However, I understood this character, Kat, played by Elizabeth Debicki, to be someone who merely starts out as a damsel in distress. Over the course of the movie, she develops more of a sense of self and comes to understand her own capabilities. Although Kat’s main motivations are centered around being a mother, she is not portrayed as weak or overbearing. Her character arc revolving around being reunited with a child is similar to that of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character in Inception. Although Kat is treated as a punching bag by her husband and she is a pawn in the Protagonist’s larger plan, I believe that she has a satisfying conclusion to her arc, and that Debicki’s stellar performance was that of a woman who proves she is no longer a damsel in distress.
If you like Inception and Interstellar or just Nolan’s films in general, you will at least be able to appreciate Tenet. I think it’s a pretty perfect film to watch right now: the action, cast, and score are all just engaging enough to fully immerse you into the movie-watching experience. I would recommend Tenet for anyone who is looking for a two-and-a-half hour break from reality.
Tenet is playing at the State Theater through Tuesday, November 10th, and it will be available digitally and on Blu-ray starting December 15th.
PREVIEW: Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival, Short Films
This weekend is Ann Arbor’s 27th annual Polish Film Festival! If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly searching for ways to put off doing actual assignments or anything remotely productive. Lucky for you, here’s another opportunity to do just that!
I’m a big fan of foreign film; it seems that many countries are far more in tune with the creativity is takes to make a truly weird, mind-bending movie (I have a lot of French and Thai favorites in that category). It’s interesting to note the differences in styles of acting and plot progression as well.
There are a few different sections of the film festival, so if you have the time, I’d encourage you to check out all of them. But I’ll just be watching the short films section; I have a whole list of other things I’m using to avoid work this weekend. On the menu are four 2019 movies, all dramas with some interesting spice, from political tension to a supernatural entity.
The short films are free to stream Friday, November 6 at 7pm through Saturday at 7pm, via https://www.michtheater.org/aapff2020/
REVIEW: The Trial of the Chicago 7
Spoilers ahead, but this film is based on a historical event so…
The Trial of the Chicago 7, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, follows the court case in which eight, later seven, defendants were accused of conspiracy during the summer of 1968. The defendants were accused of inciting riots during the Democratic National Convention which took place during a particularly turbulent time of anti-Vietnam War and counterculture protests and the civil rights movement. The film stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, and Michael Keaton.
The film, overall, is fine. The acting is quite good – Sacha Baron Cohen proves he can take on a dramatic role; Jeremy Strong proves he can take on a comedic role; Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Rylance, and Michael Keaton all prove that they still know how to act. Aaron Sorkin proves, once again, that he is capable of writing snappy dialogue, and also that maybe he should leave the directing to someone else. The film has been executed in the same manner as The Social Network – written by Sorkin, directed by David Fincher – with its fast-speaking actors and more light-hearted, generally goofier dramatization of a legal case. However, this kind of style seems better-suited to lawsuits involving Mark Zuckerberg and the events of his college days rather than a court case addressing antiwar protests and racial tensions.
The film is not insensitive. That sentence is not meant as a litotes – I am not trying to say that the film is not not insensitive. I just left the film confused about how I was supposed to feel. The film includes lines such as “Who started the riots?” and “the police don’t start riots,” and it ends with defendant Tom Hayden reading off the names of Americans who had died in Vietnam as Judge Hoffman demands that there be order in the court. The film also depicts Judge Julius Hoffman ordering that the eighth defendant, Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale, be bound, gagged, and chained to his chair for disrupting the court, despite his fellow white defendants being equally, if not more, disruptive. Seale was ultimately severed from the case – this is what makes it the Trial of the Chicago 7, not 8 – and the case was inherently about the Vietnam War rather than civil rights, however it is impossible to watch this film about protests, rioting, and police brutality in 2020 without drawing connections to race and racism. There was no way for Sorkin to predict the political climate of summer 2020, but “here is a film about some things that happened during the summer of 1968” comes across as a little lackluster. Sorkin does not take the police brutality, Vietnam death toll, or blatant racism against Seale lightly, but after having seen films that successfully balance humor and a modern political perspective on historical events – Blackkklansman comes to mind – The Trial of the Chicago 7 just falls a little flat.
Perhaps it is just simply disheartening to see the evolution of racism and police brutality since 1968. And it is a little bizarre to see this timely film take on the same tone as a film where Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg argue about feeding chicken nuggets to a chicken. That being said, The Trial of the Chicago 7 may not be revolutionary, but that does not mean it is inherently a bad film.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
REVIEW: I’m Thinking of Ending Things
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is Charlie Kaufman’s first psychological thriller as both writer and director. I watched two films he has written in preparation: Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. After this week, I can say with absolute certainty that Kaufman is a brilliant writer. Do I always understand what’s going on in his mind, though? Nope.
It’s difficult to talk about the film without spoiling everything – I’ve been mulling over the ending of the film for the past three hours and am just now beginning to piece the narrative together, to find meaning in the events leading up to the conclusion, and to solidify my interpretation of the film in its entirety. But, that’s what I love about this film – it makes you think.
Before I delve into more specific details, I should mention that the film is about an unnamed young woman who joins her boyfriend on a trip to visit his parents, but she doesn’t foresee their relationship lasting much longer. The film begins with the couple’s drive to the family farm. From the get-go, you understand why the young woman is thinking of ending things. The two are both well-educated – the boyfriend, Jake, is able to keep up with his girlfriend’s explanation of her research and the paper she has to write. They both like poetry. However, they have differing interpretations of poems and clashing opinions on philosophical debates, but they are unable to articulate their thoughts and hold a progressive conversation without being afraid of offending each other. The couple will then fall into complete silence, and when Jake asks what his girlfriend is thinking about, she tells him she’s thinking about vague, in her head stuff, while she tells the audience she doesn’t think she wants to a continue a relationship where she can’t even tell the other person what’s on her mind.
From the moment the couple starts their road trip, it’s clear there’s a sense of unease between the two. I think that this shows just how good of a writer Kaufman is. The dialogue isn’t clunky – although it can be confusing, he portrays realistic conversations between two intelligent individuals who are falling out of love. And what I find most impressive is how Kaufman is able to write all kinds of couples, from a shallow and almost manipulative attraction in Being John Malkovich, to Eternal Sunshine, which depicts the initial euphoria of meeting someone devolving into irritability and volatility, and ultimately a breakup. Furthermore, Jake and his girlfriend’s relationship in I’m Thinking of Ending Things is different from Clementine and Joel in Eternal Sunshine – we only get the young woman’s point of view, and we never see them connect on the level that Clementine and Joel do.
I have many more thoughts about the film, but they all fall into spoiler territory. So I’ll leave with the fact that there is very little music, which makes the musical moments stand out. The use of sound really sets the uneasy tone of the film – you just always feel like something’s off. Whether it’s complete silence punctuated by uncomfortable dialogue, the rhythmic thud of windshield wipers, the jingling of a dog’s collar, the minimal score, or a song from Oklahoma!, you find yourself wondering what it all means and why you feel uncomfortable. Of course, this is aided by the performances of Toni Collette and David Thewlis, and Kaufman’s messing with the concept of time, as introduced in the trailer for the film.
Overall, I highly recommend this film. You might hate it, but it’s just so interesting and there’s just so much to unpack. If anyone wants to talk about spoilers please leave a comment! I need to talk about this film!
