(but in different directions, for different reasons)
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
Nomadland (Chloé Zhao) rated R 108 min.
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): This week I’m pleased to bring you comments in my lead review about one of the absolute best cinematic accomplishments of 2020 (although just now getting into distribution because of the pandemic), Nomadland with Frances McDormand as a woman whose life is collapsing around her (husband died, job gone, whole town closed down) so she buys a van, hits the road around most of the country west of the Mississippi River taking various jobs as they become available, meeting other nomads along the way (most all of them in this film actual “road warriors,” not actors), refusing to take root even when opportunities are offered; it’s already won dozens of awards, is up for 4 more this coming weekend from the Golden Globes, will surely get Oscar nominations as well. You might be able to find it in a theater near you (if one’s open) or you can see it for a cheap monthly fee on Hulu streaming. In the Short Takes section I’ll review I Care a Lot (streams on Netflix) where Rosamund Pike’s earned a Screen Actors Guild Best Actress nomination for her role as a scheming elder-care-“advocate” who works with crony doctors and administrators to falsely put independent old folks into group homes where she can control their assets, sell off most everything for her own profit until she goes too far with Dianne Wiest and her mobster son, Peter Dinklage; this one’s a dark satire, but, depending on whether you or anyone you know’s ever been victimized by such scams, it may not come off as all that funny (well written and acted, though). Also in that section I’ll offer suggestions for some choices on the Turner Classic Movies channel (but too much extra text for line-justified-layout like you see here [Related Links stuff at each posting’s end is similarly-ragged], at least to be done by this burned-out-BlogSpot-drone—oh, ye tedious software!) along with a standard dose of industry-related-trivialities.
Here’s the trailer for Nomadland:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $. To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid those important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters like this:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: In 2011, Fern (Frances McDormand) loses her job at the US Gypsum plant in Empire, NV when it closes down, essentially closing the town as well. Before various other work she’d been at this plant for years, along with her husband who’s recently died, so with only about $500 a month to tap from Social Security she sells most everything she owns, buys a used van (very efficiently arranged so she can live in it), drives all around the West and Midwest for seasonal work, pees in fields, poops in a 5-gallon bucket, finds a job at an Amazon procurement center, finally takes the advice of coworker Linda (Linda May—the main subject of Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction-origin-book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century [2017], as most of the cast are actual nomads living the day-by-day life chronicled in the book, depicted in the film*) to escape the brutal winter snow Fern’s now dealing with by joining a gathering of nomads in Arizona organized by Bob Wells (also playing himself). Bob gives talks on various survival skills (including those poop buckets, clarifying what size you’re likely to need) which Fern soon learns how to put to use when she gets a flat, has to ask neighbor Swankie (another actuality) for a ride into town to buy a new tire, leading to a strong friendship as this other woman’s dying of cancer, gives Fern encouragement to live every day to the fullest—as best these fleeting conditions allow—rather than wasting away in meaningless surroundings. Later, Fern gets a job at an RV park where she meets David (David Strathairn, one of the few professional actors in Nomadland); he works at a nearby park, they become friends, but he needs emergency surgery after which they both take restaurant jobs in South Dakota until David’s somewhat-estranged-son finds him, invites him to come to coastal Central California for the birth of his grandchild. David encourages Fern to come too, although she declines.
Fern's next job’s harvesting beets, but when her van breaks down she can’t afford repairs so she forces herself to visit her sister, Dolly (Melissa Smith), to ask for a loan; despite some initial flak from brother-in-law George (Warren Keith)—countered by sisterly-support from Dolly—Fran gets an invitation there as well to stay for awhile but, seemingly unable to commit herself to a permanent location nor the constant companionship of others, she’s soon back on the road again, heading to where David’s now living with his son. ⇒At this stop she gets another offer to settle in, where she doesn’t have to fully commit to David, can stay in a small guesthouse in the back. Once again she declines, goes back to the Amazon job for awhile, then to the group site in Arizona where she finds Swankie has died; Fern and Bob share their stories of lost loved ones: her husband, his son who committed suicide. In the final scene Fran returns to the ghost town of Empire, gets rid of some stuff she had in a storage unit, visits her former home and factory, hits the road like she always does.⇐
*Here’s a video reaction (15:35) to the cinematic version of Nomadland by actual nomad Carolyn Higgins, who also has a background role in this near-documentary; overall, she likes what she sees.
So What? With a film I’m so impressed by, you’d think I’d have offered considerably more details in the previous plot-recap-segment, but there’s really not that much more to say about the events because (Beware! My academic-cinema-background’s about to emerge a bit.) this story, in classic film theory, is part of what's called the Realism tradition. (Linked to similar movements—also called Realism—in literature, painting, drama beginning in the 19th century, where the focus is on character development and interactions rather than the standard Hollywood approach of plot-driven-stories known as Formalism due to their emphasis on the production values of meticulous sets, crafty lighting, and, especially, active editing to move the narrative along to answer the crucial question of “What happens?” rather than Realism’s usual concerns about “Who’s in this dramatic exploration? What do we want to know about them? Will we get a sense of closure to the plot [as we do in Formalism] or will we be left with an ambiguous ending upon final fade-out?” without us always learning all we’ve come to expect in the more-dominant-presence of Formalism movies as intention, outcomes are normally wrapped up prior to the closing credits, yet in Realism we may never know all we’d like to have clarified, leaving us to apply our own interpretations, just as the filmmaker intended—there’s also a tendency in Realism to use longer takes, a moving camera showing wider shots so we have to become more active observers of what’s going on all over the frame as details aren’t always so actively pointed out to us as in Formalism where we’re usually kept in clarity with the plot’s progression through cutting and closeups focusing on actions, reactions, crucial elements in what’s unfolding before us.*) However, while I’m embedding Nomadland into this summary of the very nature of cinema, don’t worry that will make this film remote, esoteric; it’s easy to follow and admire.
*As explained by Carolyn Higgins in that video link noted just above, these people don’t considered themselves homeless (although, for many of us, living full-time in some version of an RV might not seem all that far from being destitute), they just don’t want to maintain the constrained lives they feel are all that’s available to them in standard society—sort of like the 1960s (and onward to today) hippies who prefer to leave the rat race behind for communal alternatives, although the ideals of any of these unconventional lifestyles may not stabilize if an attempt at shared-togetherness deteriorates.
There’s also a 3rd major movement in cinematic approaches, Modernism* (beginning in some mid-20th century-films, emphasizing the nature of filmmaking/film-viewing itself, akin to “action paintings” of Jackson Pollock where there’s no subject matter, just the very medium of the art form, paint, splattered onto canvas so it’s the process being explored, not the depiction of anything); the results—like in other forms of modern arts—tend to be more abstract, at times difficult to decipher, with possibly the best example of challenges to our assumptions about filmic clarity/continuity being France’s Last Year at Marienbad (Alain Resnais, 1961) where even the central characters don’t agree about what’s happening in the present, the past, or maybe even at all (unlike Formalism’s clarity, Realism’s character explorations, but intriguing nevertheless, a little touch of it in Nomadland).
Where Nomadland succeeds so well for me is in not explaining more about Fran (Dolly gives us a brief insight Fran was never well-connected to her family, but little other backstory’s revealed) so we’re never too sure if she just wants to live off the grid or if she’s haunted by something from her past (or possibly has some sort of mental difficulty) making it hard for her to connect with much of anyone else besides her late husband, nor does Zhao clarify constant plot continuity as Fran keeps popping up in various places without a lot of connective-scenes to help us know how she got there (like a mild version of jump-cutting where we’re actively thrown from one situation to another without bridging devices to immediately tell us when/where we are in the next location; more drastic forms of jump-cutting begin with cinematic-Modernism of the French New Wave in the early 1960s), yet, again, how easily we follow Fran isn’t nearly so important as the interactions she has in each place, the connections she makes vs. the ones she rejects as we try to discern more about who she is, why she is, what may ultimately become of her. McDormand (Best Actress Oscar winner for Fargo [Joel and Ethan Coen, 1996], Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri [Martin McDonagh, 2017; review in our December 7, 2017 posting], Best Actress nominee by the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild [SAG] for Nomadland) is a shoo-in for another Oscar nom this spring, where I’ll have to make my own difficult choice between her and Viola Davis for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe; review in our December 31, 2020 posting, another 5 stars-film for me) because both women are fantastic in their roles: Fran's more reserved, Ma's a force of nature, but, just for Nomadland, McDormand’s commanding presence still blends in organically-well with all those actual nomads.**
*An excellent, lengthy analysis of all this is found in David Bordwell’s On the History of Film Style, although he uses slightly different terms to designate these foundational approaches toward cinema.
**About the only negative perspective I’ve seen about Nomadland is explored in some detail in this article which argues that all this emphasis on Fran’s personality and self-determination misses a crucial focus on the mind-numbing, body-breaking fatigue of the nomads working these menial jobs.
The only other parting “So What?” thing I’ll say about Nomadland is it favorably reminds me of a monumental screen classic, The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford [1940; Oscars for Best Director, Best Supporting Actress Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, 5 other nominations including Best Picture]), a masterful example of cinematic Realism (cinematography by Gregg Toland, a key player in 1940s Hollywood excursions into this style working with directors who perfected it such as Ford, Orson Welles [although their work on Citizen Kane {1941} also incorporates such grand aspects of Formalism that I consider such conscious interweaving as the true forerunner of the later emergence of Modernism], and William Wyler [a great Realism example from him and Toland is The Best Years of Our Lives {1946}, winner of 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director]), even though the censorship restrictions of the Hays Code then prevent it from showing the grittier aspects of John Steinbeck’s original novel (1939) while the book’s marvelous structure of alternating chapters between narrative progression and semi-poetic-meditations on the grim reality of the Depression are only hinted at by a few quick shots. Nevertheless, on screen the emerging socialist-consciousness of Tom Joad (Henry Fonda)—not unlike Nomadland’s communal-drifters—the dogged-determination of the surviving Joad family to rise above adversity, the stark depiction of the cruel “Establishment” from bankers to orchard managers (in a era when the movie industry was under government pressure to provide upbeat, fanciful stories to counter the cruel realties of the 1930s) still allow The Grapes … to be a magnificent examination of the outcasts of our supposedly-grand-society (it was one of the first 25 inclusions [1989] in the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry [as were Citizen Kane and The Best Years of Our Lives]). I’ll bet Nomadland ends up there someday as well.
Nomadland’s essentially different from The Grapes of Wrath as its wanderers are mostly members of a self-chosen “band of gypsies [who] go down the highway” (to steal a line from Willie Nelson’s "On the Road Again" [1980 Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack album]), getting by as migrant workers in order to escape restrictive social roles whereas the Joads, like the other Oakies thrown off their land during those cruel Dustbowl days, travel cross-country out of desperation, moving to whatever fruit-picking-jobs may or may not become available to them, so the “nomad” motivations are different in these 2 significant films but they both speak eloquently in debunking the myth of romantic-frontier-discovery so important to the ultimate continent-conquering of our country, even if the reality of such journeys isn’t nearly as desirable as was depicted in pulp fiction of the 1800s, much of the movies’ western genre until after WW II. Protagonists in both … Wrath and Nomadland respect themselves, but they don’t always earn much from those others not forced or chosen to be on the road with them.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Nomadland (shot in various plot locations, including South Dakota, Nebraska, California) is touching the hearts of film folks worldwide as it’s included in 2020’s Top 10 lists (although unreleased until last weekend, but there’s been a general consensus among critics/awards groups to “extend” anything intended for a 2020 debut, but held back due to the pandemic, into the first couple of months of 2021 as major awards-distributors start making their decisions; Golden Globes will be given next weekend—Feb. 28, 2021—Nomadland in contention for Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama [McDormand], Best Screenplay [Zhao—although she wasn’t also chosen by the Writers Guild of America]; SAG nominations are already in place [McDormand’s up for Best Actress]; Oscar noms will be announced on March 15, 2021) by many groups including the National Board of Review and the American Film institute (see this site for more details on 162 wins, 120 nominations so far—including top prizes at the Venice Film Festival [Golden Lion], Toronto International Film Festival [People’s Choice Award]). Difficult at this point to know what financial success to expect due to theaters still not being open in some major markets (except for drive-ins); it has landed in 1,175 venues but made only $503,000. For those like me who have no theatrical access yet the best availability is on Hulu streaming ($5.95 for a month, including anything else they have you might like). Obviously it’ll end up on my Top 10 for 2020 (after I see a few others not streaming just yet), but if you need even more encouragement please know the CCAL’s highly enthusiastic: those at Rotten Tomatoes giving out 95% positive reviews while those at Metacritic offer a phenomenally-high (for them) 94% average score (far and away their best numbers they’ve assigned for anything both they and I've reviewed during this year).
While you might be a bit saddened by Fran’s overall reluctance to accept the more-stabilizing-offers she encounters, you have to admire her insistence to pilot her life as she sees fit even if it’s not the kind of choice many of us would (be able) to make, so I’ll finally wrap up this long-winded-account of a most-magnificent-film with a couple of my standard Musical Metaphors to recognize the valued (even when difficult to encounter) Realism aspects of ambiguity in this film with one from Fran’s viewpoint, “Heard It in a Love Song” (by The Marshall Tucker Band on their 1977 Carolina Dreams album), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HICPDZWnSeg (live, not sure when)—even though sung from a male point of view it speaks to Fran’s attitudes as well (“Always something greener on the other side of that hill I was born a wrangler and a rounder and I guess I always will”)—balanced against how those she leaves behind feel in “Desperado” (by the Eagles on their 1973 Desperado album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8quFtZrwFw (live from 1973): “[…] why don’t you come to your senses You’ve been out ridin’ fences for so long now Oh, you’re a hard one I know that you’ve got your reasons These things that are pleasin’ you Can hurt you somehow.” Will Fran ever “let somebody love [her] Before it’s too late”? Hard to know from what we’ve seen nor are we supposed to get closure because this road continues on its long, bumpy, unclear path 10 years now.
SHORT TAKES (spoilers also appear here)
I Care a Lot (J. Blakeson) rated R 118 min.
Marla (Rosamund Pike) is a vicious hustler, using medical/legal duplicity to force old people into care facilities under her control so she can sell their property, pay herself a big profit; then Marla tries this with a woman (Dianne Weist) more complex than she seems whose gangster son (Peter Dinklage) is ready to retaliate. Netflix; Pike is a Golden Globe nominee (awards, Feb. 28, 2021) as Best Actress.
Here’s the trailer:
Before reading further, please refer to the plot spoilers warning detailed far above.
I Care … is the very definition of “black comedy,” satire meant to open our minds to something we should abhor but, because it's embraced/misunderstand by a large enough segment of society, perceptions need to be suddenly shaken loose, even when you have to wade through offensive material presented as comedy such in Mel Brooks' intentional-assaults in The Producers (1967)—Nazism—or Blazing Saddles (1974)—racism.* I Care ...'s focus is on Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), a self-admitted predator (constantly puffing on a vape pen, blowing smoke like a dragon) of elderly people she's put into assisted-living-facilities with help from corrupt doctor Karen Amos (Alicia Witt), “care” director Sam Rice (Damian Young), easy-to-manipulate Judge Lomax (Isiah Whitlock Jr.). Using terrible (but legal) procedures where the victim doesn’t even have to be in court, false medical testimony puts oldsters under Marla’s guardianship so, drugged, they lose all contact with the outside world while she and her associate/lover, Fran (Eiza González), sell off property and homes, making a fortune as they move on to their next mark, but this one’s Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), clandestine mother of Russian mobster Roman Lunyov (Peter Dinklage), who uses a lawyer, then goons to free Mom, to no avail, even as Marla finds diamonds in a safety deposit box.
*Full disclosure: After 4 years of watching the regular attacks on our Constitution, our government and financial institutions, or any sense of decency in human interactions by the Trump family and their minions such as Rudy Giuliani (at least Sasha Baron Cohen managed to retaliate on all of them somewhat in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm [2020; review in our October 29, 2020 posting]), I found it difficult to watch Marla’s heartless actions, ruining people’s lives for her own greedy pleasure without a hint of remorse (much like the Trumps), even though I realized what screenwriter-director Blakeson is after here; I could hardly bear the minutes ticking away as the film flowed on, Marla constantly overcoming any obstacle she faced. I’ve tried to be objective in my rating/review, but my personal disgust with Marla may have guided my reaction more than it should have (though she may seem merely an outrageous joke to those who can better distance themselves from her wicked depictions).
Upping his game, Roman kidnaps Marla to buy her off, has Fran beaten up and left to die from leaking gas in their home, then finds Marla wants way too much at $10 million so he sends her off to be doped, drowned “accidently” in a lake. ⇒However, she suddenly revives, escapes, rescues Fran, kidnaps Roman, drugs him, leaves him naked in the woods so he’s considered indigent, manipulated into Marla’s guardianship. He’s now willing to pay the $10 million but instead suggests they partner, go nationwide with her scam, which is hugely successful for awhile until a man we met at the beginning, whose mother had been put away by Marla, then died, confronts/shoots/kills her as she expires in Fran’s arms.⇐ There’s a lot to like here in terms of script, acting (Pike’s nominated as a Golden Globe Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Film [although laughs here are dubious]), active flow of story, surprise twists as Marla and Roman battle each other (the CCAL likes it: RT 82% positive, MC 66% average score—more details, as with anything I review, in Related Links farther below); it’s easy to find on Netflix streaming, but it may be hard to appreciate if you’ve ever been bilked by such scams or had a loved one get improper elder care. For a Musical Metaphor I’ll choose the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb” (1966 Aftermath album) but in keeping with the female-"empowerment"-themes of this film (despicable as they may be in the character of Marla) I’ll use Tina Turner’s version at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQeYt_3oqHM, using lyrics of Marla speaking about Jennifer: “The way she talks when she’s spoken to Down to me, the change has come She’s under my thumb“ (but if you want Jagger and company, here’s a live performance in my old stomping grounds of spacious Zilker Park in Austin, TX in 2006, long after I’d moved away).
Suggestions for TCM cablecasts
At least until the pandemic subsides Two Guys also want to encourage you to consider movies you might be interested in that don’t require subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, similar Internet platforms (we may well be stuck inside for longer than those 30-day-free-initial-offers), or premium-tier-cable-TV-fees. While there are a good number of video networks offering movies of various sorts (mostly broken up by commercials), one dependable source of fine cinematic programming is Turner Classic Movies (available in lots of basic-cable-packages) so I’ll be offering suggestions of possible choices for you running from Thursday afternoon of the current week (I usually get this blog posted by early Thursday mornings) on through Thursday morning of the following week. All times are U.S. Pacific Daylight so if you see something of interest please verify actual show time in your area for the day listed. These recommendations are my particular favorites (no matter when they’re on, although some of those early-day-ones might need to be recorded, watched later), but there’s considerably more to pick from you might like even better; feel free to explore their entire schedule here. You can also click the down arrow at the right of each listing for additional, useful info.
I’ll bet if you checked that entire schedule link just above you’d find other options of interest, but these are the only ones grabbing my attention at present. Please dig in further for other possibilities.
Friday February 26, 2021
5:00 PM The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962) During the Korean War a U.S. Army platoon is captured by Soviet and Chinese forces, taken for a dose of brainwashing, then released with Sgt. Shaw (Laurence Harvey) lauded as a war hero, manipulated by his mother (Angela Lansbury) to assassinate a Presidential candidate so her husband can take the nomination, but Major Marco (Frank Sinatra) is determined to stop it. A disturbing legacy because it was released about a year before JFK murder. Oscar noms for Best Supporting Actress (Lansbury), Film Editing.
Saturday February 27, 2021
10:45 AM 12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet, 1957) Jury deliberation drama where a young man (seemingly Hispanic) accused of killing his father seems a slam-dunk for guilty by this group of
White men until Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) wants to discuss it further, angering some of the others but
he insists on more dialogue. Based on a TV play, this is a single-set, real-time-flow story becoming increasingly claustrophobic. Marvelous acting by all actors as tensions mount, evidence is more tightly examined: Fonda, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Jack Warden, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Robert Webber. Nominated for the Oscars as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay but won none.
12:30 PM A Man for All Seasons (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) Also based on a play but ultimately the history of conflict between England’s King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw) and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield), over More’s refusal to support Henry’s desire for an annulment from Catherine of Aragon, the situation becoming more difficult when Henry declares himself Head of the Church of England with More refusing to sign an oath of support (a very corpulent Orson Welles plays Cardinal Wolsey), morality vs. pragmatism. Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Scofield), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Costume Design (both latter awards for color films).
2:45 PM Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson, 1981) Based on 2 British track stars in the 1924 Olympics, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) a Christian running for the glory of God, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) a Jew running to challenge social prejudice. While there are lots of minor fictionalizations here the essential facts are accurate. The Vangelis-composed soundtrack (Oscar-winner) was ubiquitous in popular media of the time, also Oscars for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, and Costume Design.
5:00 PM Dances With Wolves (Kevin Costner, 1990) This film doesn’t fully answer the quest for Native American stories on screen to be told by their own community (see Smoke Signals among a few others for that) but it helps compared to others in that the White protagonist (Costner) isn’t a savior of the Lakota Sioux people he comes to live with out on the post-Civil War prairie (and the Native roles are all played by indigenous actors such as Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant) when he comes to understand how they’ve been demonized. Nominated for 12 Oscars, won 7: Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, and Sound Mixing.
Sunday February 28, 2021
10:45 AM Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955) Iconic James Dean role, a strong contender for best of his 3 powerful cinematic appearances (before his untimely death), as he plays a troubled teen whose independent streak just brings more difficulties from adults (including his parents) and a local gang, even as he tries to distance himself from his problems, escape from all of this hostility into a new life with his new friends (Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo), but further crises swirl around them.
Tuesday March 2, 2021
8:30 PM A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954) First musical version of this story (original drama in 1937, William A. Wellman); James Mason as movie star Norman Maine, Judy Garland as protégé Esther Blodgett (later Vicki Lester, later “Mrs. Norman Maine”), since retold twice as musicals with the basic plot of an up-and-comer taking the spotlight from an established-but-fading-performer.
For me, the best of these 4 versions, especially Garland’s rendition of “The Man Who Got Away.”
If you’d like your own PDF of ratings/summaries of this week's reviews, suggestion for TCM cablecasts, links to Two Guys info click this link to access then save, print, or whatever you need.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: Extra items you might like: (1) Writers Guild of America 2021 nominations; (2) Only 3 actors have ever won an Oscar without being nominated by both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild; (3) NYC movie theaters to reopen but will anyone show up?. As usual for now I’ll close out this section with Joni Mitchell’s "Big Yellow Taxi" (from her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album)—because “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”—and a reminder that you can search streaming/rental/purchase movie options at JustWatch.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys reviews for our past posts.* Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook please visit our Facebook page. We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problems’ been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.
AND … at least until the Oscars for 2020’s releases have been awarded on Sunday, April 25, 2021 we’re also going to include reminders in each posting of very informative links where you can get updated tallies of which films have been nominated for and/or received various awards and which ones made various individual critic’s Top 10 lists. You may find the diversity among the various awards competitions and the various critics hard to reconcile at times—not to mention the often-significant-gap between critics’ choices and competitive-award-winners (which pales when they’re compared to the even-more-noticeable-gap between specific award winners and big box-office-grosses you might want to monitor here as well as here due to many 2020 releases being tracked on the 2021 list, although the income situation for 2020’s skewed due to so many award-contenders getting limited or no theatrical releases)—but as that less-than-enthusiastic-patron-of-the-arts, Plato, noted in The Symposium (385-380 BC)—roughly translated, depending on how accurate you wish the actual quote to be—“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder,” so your choices for success are as valid as any of these others, especially if you offer some rationale for your decisions (unlike many of the awards voters who simply fill out ballots, sometimes—damn it!—for films they’ve never seen).
To save you a little time scrolling through the “various awards” list above, here are the current Golden Globe nominees for films and TV from 2020-early 2021.
Here’s more information about Nomadland:
https://www.searchlightpictures.com/nomadland/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc8X-6HI9d4 (19:08 interview with director-screenwriter
Chloé and actor Frances McDormand)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nomadland
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/nomadland?ref=hp
Here’s more information about I Care a Lot:
https://www.netflix.com/title/81350429
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybYb3wd3U1M (19:06 interview with director J. Blakeson
and actors Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinkage, Eiza González)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/i_care_a_lot
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/i-care-a-lot
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If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion, lover, and wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"
—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the stadium) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes and wanes over the months/years to come.
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