NOMADLAND (2020)

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Just a quick aside, regarding her filming Nomadland and Eternals. She filmed them back to back, and not at the same time.
While the Oscars may have awarded her due to the reasons you provided, it is still speculation, and takes away her actual accomplishments as a director.

It gets a little tiring when someone wins and their status as a minority/gender/whatever is touted as a reason rather then just acknowledging that it may have been deserved.
From ABC.net:

"... Zhao was shooting Nomadland at the same time that she was prepping Eternals, her forthcoming Marvel Studios debut that remains shrouded in secrecy, and an exercise in world-building that spans millennia.
Zhao – a self-described Marvel "fan" – had pitched the story, based on Jack Kirby's lesser-known 70s comics, about a team of humanoids forced to leave their hide-out on Earth to battle an ancient enemy.

The project sounds galaxies apart from her resolutely down-to-earth dramas, which are punctuated by moments of stillness and natural beauty.
And yet Zhao reportedly was able to bring her intimate approach to the franchise film: occasionally filming on location, using the same camera rig, magic-hour light, and personalising the alien characters played by her A-list ensemble (the roll-call includes Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Richard Madden, Harry Styles and Angelina Jolie)."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-...rnals/13213660

To the other point: If Hollywood ever stops trying to shape public societal thought and opinion to conform to their current short lived fashionable notions, people might be less inclined to believe that their choices are prejudiced.



The trick is not minding
From ABC.net:

"... Zhao was shooting Nomadland at the same time that she was prepping Eternals, her forthcoming Marvel Studios debut that remains shrouded in secrecy, and an exercise in world-building that spans millennia.
Zhao – a self-described Marvel "fan" – had pitched the story, based on Jack Kirby's lesser-known 70s comics, about a team of humanoids forced to leave their hide-out on Earth to battle an ancient enemy.

The project sounds galaxies apart from her resolutely down-to-earth dramas, which are punctuated by moments of stillness and natural beauty.
And yet Zhao reportedly was able to bring her intimate approach to the franchise film: occasionally filming on location, using the same camera rig, magic-hour light, and personalising the alien characters played by her A-list ensemble (the roll-call includes Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Richard Madden, Harry Styles and Angelina Jolie)."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-...rnals/13213660

To the other point: If Hollywood ever stops trying to shape public societal thought and opinion to conform to their current short lived fashionable notions, people might be less inclined to believe that their choices are prejudiced.
To the first point, nowhere does that state she filmed both at the same time, as you claimed.*Pre-production isn’t the same thing.
To the second, that’s a fair, but separate point to whether it was deserved or not.



As per the OP Nomadland could have been a fascinating documentary, in fact much of it did feel that way. In my view this film would have been passed over for Oscars in any year that actually had several excellent films to choose from.

There were 3 elements associated with this film which favored it in today's Hollywood climate: First, it is a modern day Grapes of Wrath, which plays to today's youths' collectivist spirit. Second, Frances McDormand has surpassed Meryl Streep as queen of PC, and equals her stature as a heavyweight actress. If McDormand were in a movie where she simply stood in line at a fast food restaurant, she'd likely get some kind of nomination. Her acting here was simply average McDormand. And third, Chloe Zhao benefited from the rush to promote females, and to favor minorities. She divided her time between Nomadland and the upcoming Marvel Studios film, Eternals, so it would be interesting to know how much of the actual direction of the film fell to some of the 9 producers, productions designer, production manager, or AD.

Nomadland was not a bad picture, and the subject was interesting enough. But it was simply not extraordinary.
(emphasis added)

No way on earth would I compare this movie to Grapes of Wrath. Nothing like the book or the movie.

“Average” McDormand. I don’t even know what this means.

Didn’t know there is a “rush to promote females”.
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Nomandland



Movies like this are why The Academy Awards are going to be as irrelevant as the Miss America contest.



Nomandland



Movies like this are why The Academy Awards are going to be as irrelevant as the Miss America contest.
I agree with you. However I'd definitely prefer the Miss America Pageant. But just the swim suit portion. They may not do that any more..



I like the film, not really the film but the idea of the film. It was not explored deeply, but that's not what people that pay tickets want, cinema to the vast majority still is a backscreen where you can dream and not be challenged. By 'explored deeply' I mean exploring the main theme of the film: freedom. They at least showed adversity and didn't sugar the whole thing, that's why I don't dislike it.

I like the photography, although I think in other hands would be much better, and could also be much worse, so, that makes it okay. The soundtrack is also spot on, anything with Ludovico can't go totally wrong, and this theme really brooded everything up.

What I don't like, and this is more important than anything else to me, because a beautiful film anyone who's curious and persevere can do, in my opinion, but the why this film was made and what it means to the industry is what I don't really like.

I think in it's core it's a sequence of The Joker, a film that I liked, it's another film made to be compelling socially, and therefore discredit the Academy with their awards, in my opinion. I can respect The Joker because it was more open to disagreement and outrage because it dealt with feelings not everyone shares that deeply, it was directed to a group in our society, a group increasing in numbers I believe.

The Joker opened itself when he introduced anarchy, an animalistic state of sociopathy and narcissistic retribution as a sort of vengeance. Cutting the big words sort, you can't say: "Because you don't care about me, I'll stop caring about you, and because you neglect that my life also has meaning as well, I'll take your life and laugh at any meaning you've given it. Because you don't notice me, I'll make you notice me." This mentality is displayed in every sector, from the political to any other now. It's the implementing of the monkey scene in the film The Square, although this one much better, much more poetic, much more artistic.



I like the film, not really the film but the idea of the film. It was not explored deeply, but that's not what people that pay tickets want, cinema to the vast majority still is a backscreen where you can dream and not be challenged.
When did watching a movie get so over-analyzed?



They started being heavily analyzed at the same time they were generally taken seriously as an art form, I think.

Then, in response to the evolution of the form, communities of people sprung up to appreciate and analyze film aspiring to those higher levels.

^ You Are Here.



Welcome to the human race...
When did watching a movie get so over-analyzed?
Since always? Film is an artistic medium as well as a source of entertainment so people of all kinds will engage with a film to varying degrees. It's especially fair when it comes to prestige films as it's worth questioning whether they manage to justify their various artistic accolades through form and substance.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



When did watching a movie get so over-analyzed?
Around the same time people started rolling their eyes at anyone who consumes art differently than them.