![]() ![]() The documentary aspect of “Nomadland”-which was written, directed, and edited by Zhao, and is based on the nonfiction book of the same title by Jessica Bruder-arises from the details of Fern’s changed way of living. Wanting nonetheless to remain in Empire-and her motive drops into the movie only belatedly-she decides to live in her van. After he died, she stayed in the area, but Empire is a company town, her home was company housing, and when the mine closed she was forced out. The movie’s protagonist, Fern (Frances McDormand), had long lived in Empire with her husband, Bo, who worked for the company, in the mine. Gypsum’s facility in Empire, Nevada, because of reduced demand for sheetrock. The story is rooted in an actual event, as stated in an opening title card: the closing, in January, 2011, of U.S. Rather, the two elements work against each other, each revealing the fault lines of the other: the fictional side remains bound to (and limited by) the most conventional and unquestioned observational mode of documentary filmmaking, while the documentary aspect strains against the simplifying framework of the drama in which it’s confined. These two motifs hardly coalesce to become a hybrid, though the film is not a docudrama. Though it runs just under two hours, it’s two movies in one: a documentary and a fiction. There’s a lot going on in Chloé Zhao’s new film “Nomadland” (streaming on Hulu), not only because of its variety of incidents but because of its heterogeneous composition. ![]()
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