‘Nomadland’ Film Review: Frances McDormand Hits the Road in Quiet, Lyrical Drama

Not since Jeff Goldblum stocked his penis in a jar or Bryan Cranston tore apart his meth lab has a fly played such a pivotal role on screen as in Mandibles (Mandibules), the latest comic whatchamacallit from French one-man-band Quentin Dupieux.

When his girlfriend can’t get pregnant, a trans man decides to carry the child in her stead in the French drama A Good Man. This is the latest feature from writer-director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.

Are all relationships between older men and younger women abusive ones? Do the young women who take part in such relationships hold any level of responsibility? Is it "OK" to be attracted to somebody more than twice your age, and, if so, can you act on that desire? Is it too French to be asking such questions, especially in a movie? These are some of the many thoughts evoked by Spring Blossom (Seize Printemps), a provocative first feature from writer-director-actress Suzanne Lindon that depicts

When we talk about the title of Greatest Living Actress, it seems as though many folks can only think of one answer to that question (we’ll give you a hint: her first name rhymes with Ferrell). While we are in no way trying to throw the goddess Meryl Streep under the proverbial bus, we are suggesting that perhaps it’s time to allow for more room in the conversation without showering all our attention on one admittedly iconic performer who, by now, has earned her just desserts.

Also Read: 'Nomadland' Film Review: Frances McDormand Hits the Road in Quiet, Lyrical DramaThe film begins with three sentences, and they’re all the context you’ll get and all the context you’ll need: “After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the First World War, the colonial powers sketched new borders for the Middle East. Over the following decades, greed and ambition for power gave rise to military coups, corrupt regimes, authoritarian leaders and foreign interference.

A modest French cousin to Erin Brockovich and Todd Haynes’ recent Dark Waters, Red Soil (Rouge) once again pits a tireless underdog against the forces of corporate greed and looming environmental catastrophe. The hook this time is that the underdog, played by the talented Zita Hanrot (Fatima), is fighting too close to home, with her own father a longtime worker at the factory that’s been dangerously polluting their region.

For her sixth feature film, French writer-director-actress Maïwenn (Polisse, Mon Roi) has definitely made one of her most introspective works yet.

Also Read: 'Nomadland' Film Review: Frances McDormand Hits the Road in Quiet, Lyrical DramaThey become fast friends, and then lovers.

Nomadland.The movie sees the award-winning actor play Fern, who becomes a modern-day nomad after losing everything in the 2008 financial crisis.While working on the film, director Chloé Zhao (The Rider) wanted the star to “blend in” with a real nomadic community.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorFrances McDormand says she’s always dreamt of hitting the road.She told her husband when she was 45 that she had plans to change her name to Fern when she turns 65 and “start smoking Lucky Strikes, drinking Wild Turkey and I’d hit the road in my RV.”Her dreams sort of came true with “Nomadland.” The 63-year-old Oscar winner stars in the new Searchlight Pictures as Fern, a woman who lives in her van and joins a community of drifters.

Frances McDormand and Chloe Zhao are two names you’ll probably be hearing throughout the upcoming awards season!

PASADENA – Sadly, the 2020 edition of the Telluride Film Festival was canceled in July, but a little slice of the annual cinephile retreat was brought back to life Friday night at the iconic Rose Bowl. The festival and Searchlight Pictures partnered for a drive-in screening of Chloe Zhao‘s acclaimed drama “Nomadland” which premiered earlier in the day at Venice and also screened virtually at the Toronto Film Festival.

In her two previous features, Songs My Brother Taught Me and The Rider, Chloé Zhao established a spiritual connection to the American West, with its immense skies and wide-open landscapes that speak equally of desolate solitude and of freedom. Working primarily with nonprofessional actors playing versions of themselves, she specializes in stories carved into the bones of her characters, their communities and the remotes spaces they inhabit.

Marta Balaga Joining the press conference of “Nomadland” via Zoom on Friday, presented in Venice in the main competition before its Toronto bow, director Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand – “It’s McDormand, not McDonald. M-C-D-O-R-M-A-N-D.

Todd McCarthy Go-her-own-way director Chloé Zhao closes out her exceptional trilogy about the dispossessed and left-behind in the modern American West with Nomadland, a cool, contemplative look at contemporary American outcasts whose foothold in society grows more precarious with every passing year.

There is a golden rule about the Oscars that will remain relevant whether there is a global pandemic, significant changes to the Best Picture inclusion standards or if the theatrical distribution system completely collapses. Simply, when it comes down to it, Academy voters are ruled by emotion.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic“If you want to get more out of life,” advised Christopher McCandless, “you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.

There is a golden rule about the Oscars that will remain relevant whether there is a global pandemic, significant changes to the Best Picture inclusion standards or if the theatrical distribution system completely collapses. Simply, when it comes down to it, Academy voters are ruled by emotion.

Nancy Tartaglione International Box Office Editor/Senior ContributorDirector Chloe Zhao’s third feature, Nomadland, landed on the Lido this morning as one of the final movies to screen in competition at the Venice Film Festival.