Nomadland

"What's remembered, lives." Nomadland, which combines elements of drama, road movie and a pseudo-documentary in a natural and non-violent way, tells the story of people whose lives seem adventurous and unbound at first glance, but on second look you feels their loneliness, rootlessness and sadness. It is a film about people who have chosen, or rather been forced to choose, a life on the move and with almost no solid ground under their feet. But even so, friendships or even deeper relationships can form between these "modern nomads". I was intrigued that alongside the professional actors, the film also features "naturals" who, together with the sometimes almost raw cinematography and locations, added to the film’s believability – thumbs up for the storylines with Swankie and Bob. As a result, the film hovers between three and four stars for me, but in this case I'll add extra one. PS: "See you down the road." (03/01/2021)

Not the first time I can't appreciate an Oscar winning film. Personally, I have a soft spot in my heart for nomads, but that's not the point. Because Nomadland comes across as a documentary at times, it forced me to form an opinion about things that have nothing to do with the film. Cinematically, it's perfect by all accounts. Breathtaking shots of nature, sensitively portrayed loneliness and longing at the same time, very nice music, sound, editing. Beautiful, but unfortunately I can’t help at least partly judging how I like the specific way these people live, what they do and say, and so on. And that inevitably plays into my overall impression of the film. But the determination to go against the grain is beautiful and in its own way uplifting. So is the appreciation of nature and putting people above real estate. (06/25/2021)

A fragile, subtle social drama that resonated with me in a similar way as its indie brother The Florida Project did years ago, which I actually found more distinctive and more interesting. But even so, I had no problem empathising with Fren's nomadic fate and sometimes, in my late fifties, when everything at work pisses me off, I'd pick everything up and move to Kořenov in the Jizera Mountains, in the middle of beautiful nature :o) I really envied her unbridled freedom sometimes, and the nice people around her, you don’t get that in our country. Still, I have a nagging feeling that the Oscar buzz around this film is a testament to how poor last year was cinematically. In other times, in fatter years, Chloé Zhao would have collected awards only at Sundance, but now she can dream of golden baldies in her covid nightmare. (03/10/2021)

These are the people I want to watch, these are the stories I'm interested in, this is the face of the USA I want to explore. A semi-documentary ode to one of the last avatars of the original American idea, where we meet (with two exceptions) a whole range of real old-school nomads (as that term has been discredited by the bourgeois trend of "digital nomads") whose integrity makes it virtually impossible for them to act badly because they're just being themselves and the film doesn't put them in situations they don't know. In general, there's a great sense of humility from Chloé Zhao in this film, because just from how natural everyone involved seems you can tell that she must have been moving among them for some time, very subtly, until they got used to her presence and the camera. Otherwise there’s almost no point in talking about McDormand, the actress is absolutely incredible and along with the likes of Helen Mirren or Jennifer Jason Leigh demonstrates the power of ageing proudly. (02/28/2021)