Nomadland: The Cost of Capitalism

I wasn't sure what I expected going into Nomadland. All I knew was that is was a highly acclaimed film that had been garnering a terrific amount of praise from the outset, and that I could expect to see Frances McDormand wandering around America for two hours. Well, that's what I got, but I also got a cinematic experience that was deeply moving and affecting and stirred me up in a way I had not anticipated. This might be the perfect pandemic watch if you need some time with your feelings: I know it certainly helped me.

Written, edited, produced, and directed by Chloe Zhao (talk about a woman who fully owns her film), the movie is inspired by Jessica Bruder's non-fiction book of the same name, which I immediately got from the library after I finished watching this film. It tells the story of a fictional woman named Fern (Frances McDormand) who lived with her husband in the decidedly non-fictional town of Empire, Nevada. Empire was a company town for the United States Gypsum Corporation, but on January 31, 2011, the Corporation closed the mine and the town (their zipcode was discontinued by June). The residents all had to leave the town and when Fern's husband dies, she finds herself homeless and alone, and living out of her van. What follows is an epic mood piece as Fern tries to figure out what she's going to do now. While working a seasonal job at an Amazon factory, she meets Linda May, who tells her about Bob Wells, a man who promotes vandwelling and runs an annual gathering of vandwellers in Arizona where people can share tips & tricks on the nomad lifestyle.

Linda May and Bob Wells are actual people, playing fictional versions of themselves in this film, and all of that further adds to the blurry boundaries between real life and fiction throughout this movie. As I was watching, I remember initially thinking how those actors playing the vandwellers seemed so authentic and wonderful, only to discover oh of course, they are actual vandwellers who featured in Bruder's book and now in this film. But while Frances McDormand might be playing a fictional character, there's nothing fake about the heart and depth she brings to the screen. You only get her back story in bits and pieces, which is an effective narrative device to maintain the mystery around this woman and keep you invested in her journey. There is so much fierce pride as she resists all attempts from friends and family members to help her. There is so much grief as she contemplates her old life and her losses. There is so much love in every little piece of her van that she has retrofitted to become her new home. There is so much grit as she seeks out her fortunes on the road. 

The tone of this film is extraordinary. At times, it is so bleak and unyielding. Fern works a number of odd jobs to support herself as she travels from town to town: these can include packaging items in an Amazon factory, cleaning bathrooms as the guest host at an RV park, or serving food in a roadside restaurant. But in the midst of that drudgery, there are moments of overwhelming joy, because she is out and about in America and experiencing the great outdoors, looking for dinosaur fossils at Badlands National Park or staring up at constellations in the night sky. Depending on the scene, her world can simultaneously feel so small and so big, and it's a wondrous thing to behold. And the people around her are also wondrous. A large part of the vandwelling philosophy is to stop waiting for retirement; instead of buying into the capitalist dream, these nomads are setting off for adventures before they die. They are mostly kind and generous and loving folk who have decided they'd rather be living out of a van instead of dealing with stuff and people. During a pandemic, that might be a philosophy we've all started to embrace.

Nomadland is slow and meditative but it sneaks into your soul. It is beautifully shot by cinematographer Joshua James Richards and I have never been more impressed by a cactus as I was in the glorious shots of desert sunsets. And of course, I kept getting stirred up the score: turns out it was written by one of my favorite composers, Ludovico Einaudi, so no surprise why that piano music felt like it was pouring directly into my heart. This was a beautiful movie that seeped into all the emotional corners of my being and gave them a good wringing out. It's hard to explain movies like these, so all I can say is give it a try. It might be exactly the kind of melancholy yet exuberant story you need to see right now. 

Weekend Warmth: To All the Boys & Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

Some weeks, you are all set to watch important and hard-hitting movies that are gonna lay the truth on you and expand your horizons. And some weeks, you want to cozy up to a YA romcom or a splendidly dumb female buddy comedy. For those latter weeks, I've got you covered.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever: This is the third installment in the series that began with To All the Boys I've Loved Before in 2018. If you haven't watched the previous films, you're in for a trilogy treat, lucky you! Based on the Young Adult novels by Jenny Han, this film sees our heroine, Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor), wrestling with college applications and planning for her future with boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). This movie has such a zippy and fun plot, and of course, is especially dear to me as it features Lara Jean traveling to New York City and experiencing its delights for the first time. Like all great YA films (and most Netflix productions where the music budget appears to be astronomical), this movie has a banging soundtrack from start to finish, and at the very least you will be adding some new songs to your rotation. 

The production and costume design are also as impeccable as always, particularly at the beginning when Lara Jean and her family are visiting Seoul (which allows for some great K-pop numbers to kick off the soundtrack). Every location is eye-popping in its detail, every set is meticulously crafted, Lara Jean's outfits are on point. These movies are a candy-coated confection, aesthetically-speaking, but Katie Lovejoy's script is also heartfelt and stirs up all the feels. This is a lovely, romantic, comforting movie to watch. If, like me, you've already seen the previous films, it is so nice to return to these characters and see how the actors have grown since we saw them last (Noah Centineo has definitely bulked up over the intervening years while Lana Condor is still as fresh-faced and delightful as ever). The supporting characters are also evolving with their own side romances, and it's all very cute and charming. Face it, we need to escape from the daily grind, and this movie is the escape you seek.

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar: Speaking of escapes, if you want to escape from reality so far that you enter into a new dimension, Barb and Star is the movie for you. It is essentially like watching a highlight reel of the best Saturday Night Live sketches strung together to make one insane and bonkers and madcap movie that will keep you giggling for 100 minutes. Isn't that all we want during these times? If you want a description of the plot, I don't know what to tell you - the title tells you all you need to know, doesn't it? Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig (teaming up ten years after writing the smash hit Bridesmaids) play the eponymous Barb and Star, two middle-aged ladies from Nebraska, with the accents to match, who are best friends and decide to go to Vista Del Mar, Florida for a vacation. Unbeknownst to them, that small town is where an evil villain (who is also played by Kristen Wiig) is planning to launch a dastardly plot by way of her henchman, Edgar (played by the deliciously divine Jamie Dornan). Barb and Star "befriend" Edgar, and everything goes haywire. There are musical numbers, there are absurd fantasy sequences, and most importantly, there are jokes, jokes, and more jokes.

This movie is crazy and perfect. Wiig and Mumolo are best friends and their chemistry shines on screen as these two ladies who love talking to each other and can spend every waking minute chattering away about utterly inane topics. And when the movie is not focused on them, there are a million side gags involving every single random character they come across. One of the highlights for me was their Talking Club, which features a host of comedic women you will recognize from various sitcoms and movies. I don't know how anyone managed to get through a single scene of Talking Club without cracking up and ruining the take, but I guess that's why these ladies are professional comedians. Watch this film. It's loud, colorful, joyful, and hysterical in the best possible way and you need it in your life.  

Judas and the Black Messiah: A Treacherous Revolution

The past few years have shown us that educating ourselves about Black History is a continuous endeavor. However, if you've only realized you might need some education this February for Black History Month, you could do no better than to watch Judas and the Black Messiah. A tense and thoughtful film, it's an enraging look at how this country attacked Black activists in the 60s, and the clashes between minorities and the police that continue to this day. 

Set in the late 1960s, this is the story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), the leader of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, and William "Bill" O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty car thief who becomes an FBI informant to avoid going to prison and infiltrates the Party. As Bill slowly rises up the ranks, it is clear that the work of the Black Panthers is increasingly resonating with him, and while he thought he didn't have any political leanings, he does like these people and what they stand for. But as the FBI ramps up their efforts to destroy the Panthers, who they consider domestic terrorists, he is led down a path of treachery that will haunt him for the rest of his life. 

This movie is excellent for a lot of reasons but number one is the casting. Daniel Kaluuya mentioned in an interview how he worked extensively with a dialect coach to nail Fred Hampton's speech patterns, and you can tell. His delivery is absolutely flawless. And as the eponymous Black Messiah of the film, he needs to deliver many rousing speeches, targeted to energize his audience and incite a revolution among the people. It's a phenomenal portrayal of the charisma and passion that made Hampton such an effective activist and showcases why the FBI were so worried about him. On the flip side, you have the far quieter but tense performance that Lakeith Stanfield has to deliver, as a man who is in constant fear for his life. He is quick-witted and manages to outfox the Panthers every time they have any doubts, but you can see the flash of fear in his eyes and the toll that this role is taking on him as time passes and these people start to become his friends. Jesse Plemons is perfectly cast as FBI Agent Roy Mitchell: he might be a nice guy to O'Neal but is completely morally ambiguous otherwise. He has fully drunk the FBI Kool-Aid and will stop at nothing to bring down Fred Hampton by any means. It is also ingenious casting to see Martin Sheen, ordinarily revered for playing the most admirable fictional US President on The West Wing, playing the villainous J. Edgar Hoover, who set up the infamous COINTELPRO program and had no qualms about essentially assassinating US citizens who were fighting for racial justice and equality.

It was interesting to watch this movie after watching The Trial of the Chicago 7 last fall, because they both take place in Chicago in the 1960s, and Fred Hampton's death (spoiler alert) happens offscreen in that movie. In this film, of course, we are leading up to Hampton's death, and even though I already knew what was coming, it didn't stop the movie from being incredibly tense and horrifying. And the epilogue, featuring clips of the actual men, further confirmed what wonderful performances Kaluuya and Stanfield had been delivering throughout the film. The one thing that did surprise me was the fact that these men were so young. O'Neal was only 17 when he became an informant, and at the time of his death, Hampton was only 21. It is such an incredible loss. I was swept away by Hampton's speeches in this movie - what could he have achieved if he had been allowed to live longer?

Judas and the Black Messiah is a dark, taut movie that features excellent performances and a searing screenplay by Shaka King (who also directed) and Will Berson. It is violent - be prepared for MANY gun fights - but it also tells an important story about the work of the Black Panthers. We are often only told about their violent rhetoric, instead of the incredible work they did to prop up their communities by offering free healthcare, meals, and education. Their clashes with the police echo the same clashes we see today with the Black Lives Matter movement, and it is tiring to see history repeat itself so often. And yet, it is also thrilling to see Black filmmakers getting more chances to tell these stories and amplify the voices of these people from our past, so that maybe, just maybe, we can finally fix our future.

One Night in Miami: A Celebration of Black Excellence

This has been a great year for women directors (which in Hollywood, means that more than two women got to make high-profile movies). Of course, just because a woman is directing a movie, doesn't mean it's going to be good, and so I watched One Night in Miami with a lot of hope and my fingers crossed. But I needn't have worried. First-time director but long-time superstar Regina King absolutely knocks it out of the park.

I didn't realize the movie was based on a play by Kemp Powers (who also adapted this screenplay), but that fact became evident as the movie progressed and I found myself becoming more and more entranced by the dialogue. This is the story of a fictionalized meeting between four Black American icons: Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben Adir), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Cassius Clay, soon-to-be Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree) who all celebrate in a motel room on the night of February 25, 1964, after Clay has just defeated Sunny Liston to become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The movie actually opens with four different scenes highlighting where these men were in their lives prior to this night and the various struggles they were facing, but as they gather in that motel room, the first feeling you get is one of playful exuberance. Clay is so splendidly arrogant, but having just been crowned as world champion, isn't that allowed? He declares that he has conquered the world of boxing and he's only 22, which is such a startling and monumental achievement. But he isn't the only impressive Black man in that room.

Over the course of two hours, we get to understand each man's achievements in his sphere of influence. Sam Cooke is a music maestro, charming white audiences with his voice and dubbed the King of Soul. He isn't just a singer though - he's also a producer with his own label, through which he tries to empower up-and-coming Black artists. Jim Brown is one of the greatest football players of all time, but he's now considering a pivot to Hollywood. And then we have Malcolm X, a man who is fighting so hard for Civil Rights, but is also currently facing his own doubts about the leadership of the Nation of Islam, while dealing with escalating harassment from the FBI. He is a man on the edge, and as this night continues, the celebratory atmosphere takes a turn as X starts to lay into Cooke about how he isn't doing enough with his gifts to speak out for racial justice. 

I don't want to get into more detail because it all unfolds beautifully like the world's most engaging history lesson. Cooke's business acumen and his story about Bobby Womack and the Rolling Stones made me cheer. But when X berates him via Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind," it is a gut punch. Meanwhile, Brown acts as a wonderful mediator, exuding a calm patience built up from years of having to put up with the cognitive dissonance exhibited by his white neighbors back home in Georgia. And you get to see Clay struggle with his impending decision to become a Muslim and join X in the Nation of Islam. This movie captures all four men at such a pivotal moment in their own personal histories, as well as a pivotal moment in the history of Civil Rights in this country and it's a magnificent thing to watch them debate and argue and ascertain what their duty is as pioneers in their fields to speak up for the rest of the downtrodden and oppressed. 

Plays adapted for the screen can sometimes suffer in translation, but thanks to the excellent writing and direction, and pitch-perfect casting (I cannot think of four actors who could better capture both the look and essence of these men), One Night in Miami won't bore you for a second. Even though they're in a cramped hotel room, King moves the action around in various ways, either by an interlude on the roof, or a flashback to Cooke singing a few years ago, so you never get too claustrophobic. And let's face it. Even if the entire movie was just these four men in a room, I would have been fascinated for the entire two hours because of the things they had to say. It is such a frank and complicated discussion of race and activism, as well as a chance to stop and marvel at the singular achievements of these men. It's a powerful story that leaves you thirsting for more (I need the Sam Cooke and Jim Brown biopics STAT) and many of their discussions about what they owe to their community are still resonant today. Watch it and let your education continue after you're done. 

Minari: What Is the American Dream?

I didn’t know much about Minari before I watched it, but I knew all about the controversy. While the movie is an American production and tells the story of a Korean-American family in the 1980s who have moved to Arkansas, the movie is only being considered in the Foreign Language Film category at the Golden Globes and Oscars, because the dialogue is almost entirely in Korean. This has led to much outrage about what makes a film “foreign” and how arbitrary this classification has become in an increasingly globalized world. One of my favorite comments about this was in this Book Club discussion of Interior Chinatown, where Andrew Ti noted that half of The Godfather is in Italian, and that’s considered the most American movie ever! Well, now, having watched the film, I must agree. I cannot fathom a movie that is more American than this, language be damned.

Over the course of two hours, you will follow the fortunes of the Yi family. Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Han Ye-ri) worked as chicken sexers in California (sidenote: you don’t get that many movies about chicken sexers!) but have now moved to Arkansas so Jacob can pursue his dream of running a farm. They have two children, David (Alan Kim) and Anne (Noel Kate Cho), and eventually, Monica’s mother (played by the absolutely brilliant Youn Yuh-jung, who is already racking up Best Supporting Actress nominations at awards ceremonies that aren't discounting "foreign" actors) also comes in from Korea to live with them. It’s a simple story of a hardworking immigrant family that is trying to pursue their dreams and make it big in America, but as the film progresses, you see how much strain the pursuit of the American dream can put on their close relationships. Like many Americans (and almost all men), Jacob thinks money will buy happiness and pursues his dream with a fervor that ignores everything else going on in his family. Meanwhile the young children are forced to endure their parents’ fights and endure the instability around them as the adults figure out what to do. 

I wasn’t sure I cared that much for this film until I got to the end. That’s when everything came to a head and I could see what the movie had been building towards all along. And while yes, this is a drama about an American family, the fact that they are Korean makes it wonderfully unique. There is no horrific racism, and the white people they encounter in their daily lives are nothing but friendly and supportive of their hopes and dreams. There’s a fair amount of comedy as Jacob deals with Paul (Will Patton), a very religious Korean War veteran who he hires to help out with his farm. Jacob is also fond of telling his son to use his mind and not do things like an American. When grandma asks if David will mind sharing his room with her since American kids don’t like to share, Monica quickly says, “he’s a Korean kid.” That struggle to assimilate but still retain their Korean-ness is always at the forefront of this movie, and is never more evident than their meals, which may feature kimchi and chopsticks, but are washed down thirstily with Mountain Dew.

Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, Minari is a semi-autobiographical movie about his own upbringing, which is clear in the attention to detail. It is also clear in the fact that much of the focus of this film is on David, but not his sister Anne. It's very typical for boys to have no idea what their sisters were going through during their childhoods, and I did find myself occasionally wondering how that young girl was dealing with all these goings-on. But apart from that quibble, this is a solid script and once again a reminder of how much it matters to allow diverse voices on screen to tell fresh and still unfailingly universal stories. This family is so Korean, but so American, and you can relate to their every joy and heartache. And the fact that you need to read some subtitles to understand what they are saying has no bearing on the fact that your heart can immediately sense how they are feeling.

In & Of Itself: Mesmerizing Magic

Last week, my Twitter feed blew up with various celebrities tweeting about how much they loved Derek DelGaudio's In & Of Itself. I had heard of this stage show while it was playing in NYC, but had forgotten about it until now. So when two college friends proposed a Zoom movie night, I suggested loading this up on Hulu and seeing what the fuss was about. All we knew was that it was a magic show...maybe? But by the end, I finally understood why no one has been able to describe this show except in the vaguest way possible. The Hulu website describes it as a "lyric poem" and while that is hilariously pretentious, I can't do any better. Let's see what I can do.

This adaptation was directed by Frank Oz and is a compilation of multiple shows that were staged over the course of its two-year off-Broadway run. The show begins with the audience members having to pick out an "I AM" card that describe them, e.g. "I AM a grandpa" or "I AM an organizer" or "I AM an accountant." These are then collected by the ushers and put into a stack that DelGaudio will draw from during the rest of the show, in ways that I cannot detail here because, c'mon, I can't ruin the surprise.

Honestly, I don't know what else to tell you, because this is emphatically one of those pop culture experiences that you need to see/feel for yourself. If I were to describe everything that happened in detail, you would be left wondering why on earth I was raving about this show. So I need you to just trust me and give it a shot. And I say this knowing that you may or may not end up loving it. The friends I watched it with thought it was fine, but one of them thought it was too dark when she was just in the mood for a light magic show, while the other one was so caught up in trying to figure out how DelGaudio was pulling off his tricks that she didn't really buy into the story's emotional resonance. I, on the other hand, was the target audience member for this triumphant piece of storytelling. 

As a child, I loved magic tricks and there was a time when I would try to put on magic shows for friends and family. I grew out of the performing phase but I never grew out of my love of magic. Over the years, I have watched interviews with magicians and gotten some insight into how they perform. And one thing that always comes up is the patter. Magicians are always talking because they're trying to distract you from their sleight of hand or the other onstage shenanigans that make their tricks work. And my sense of most magicians has always been that they're a little bit slick and polished. I love their tricks, but I don't necessarily love them. But DelGaudio is different. For this show, his persona is a little sad, a little lost, and as the show progresses, he radiates this loving empathy and resonance with all of the audience members that culminates in spectacular fashion. And I know it's impossible to understand how empathy in an intimate stage show can radiate off the screen years later when you're watching this show at home, but believe me, it does. I cried twice during this show, even as I was texting my friends with various theories about how he had managed to pull off these tricks. Because it turns out that DelGaudio isn't just content with distracting you with his patter. His patter is going to delve into your psyche and make you sob. It seems silly to me to call DelGaudio a magician, because this is a tour-de-force performance, and he needs to be heralded more as a writer and actor for creating this magical story and performing it with such heartfelt earnestness. 

So keep an open mind and watch In & Of Itself. The magic is magnificent, but the emotion is so much more impactful. But if you find yourself untouched by emotion, I can still promise some entertainment via the celebrity cameos that will pop up in the audience, as word of mouth ensured that many famous faces showed up during this show's run. My only regret is that I never saw it in person, but given how affected I was just by watching this show on an iPad over Zoom, I'm not sure my heart could have borne a live performance. During a pandemic, where we all feel a bit isolated and increasingly turn to our self-imposed identities, this show is a reminder of the people in our lives who see all our different facets and refuse to let us just be one thing. I have no idea what "I AM" card I would pick on any given day at any given minute, but all I know is that after watching this show, I'm going to be paying a lot more attention to the story I'm telling about myself.