Is there a more anticipated fall festival movie than Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland”?
Zhao’s “The Rider” was a surprise hit at Cannes back in 2017, so much so that her next film was bound to be hotly anticipated. Here was a female filmmaker with a keen, poetic eye for humanism. Marvel Studios, unfortunately, hired her to direct their upcoming “The Eternals,” but the real focus should be on “Nomadland,” starring Frances McDormand, which was announced to simultaneously world premiere on September 11 at the Venice and the Toronto International Film Festivals.
In “Nomadland” Zhao decides to adapt journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century”. The film, taking place during the 2008 economic recession, follows a woman (played by Frances McDormand) who packs her van and sets off on the road exploring life on the total outskirts of mainstream society, she, by in turn, becomes a Nomad.
A teaser for the film arrived earlier this morning and it’s beautifully simple, a walk that says a thousand words as Zhao follows McDormand’s character on a soft trek down a trailer park. It represents an American that is nary tackled in movies, one in which people struggle day-to-day to make ends meet. I cannot wait to see this movie.
A domestic and international theatrical release is expected for “Nomadland” this fall.