Nomadland

I loved Chloé Zhao's Nomadland. It's so smart and sensitive and generous. The photography is gorgeous. The musical score is beautiful (it's not original). The performances by Frances McDormand and David Strathairn are great. One of the best movies of the year. 

I was surprised that I loved this so much. I didn't really care much for Zhao's last film, The Rider, even though almost everyone else seemed to love it. I just am not very interested in her use of non-actors. 

And, I have to say, I really didn't like the non-actor aspect of Nomadland either. It's not that I don't think they're interesting people – they are definitely that – it's just that non-actors don't open up very well to the camera, and so they don't let the viewer have access to them in a way that an actor usually would. I find this a frustrating movie-watching experience. If I'm honest, I would just prefer that everyone in the film was an actor. For me, the sequences that worked best in Nomadland were all of the scenes with actors.

But honestly this bothered me a lot less in this movie than it did in The Rider, and Nomadland is a wonderful film. I recommend it to everyone.