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Sunday, January 2, 2022

Thoughts on Minari, Nomadland, and Hello, My Name is Doris

Minari: a really good family drama from 2020 directed by Lee Issac Chung starring Steven Yeun as the patriarch of a Korean family living in 1980s Arkansas and trying to get by in their trailer home and his gardening job in producing heritage vegetables in Korean cuisine. I liked how intimate the film felt, based on the director’s childhood, and how the mom was feeling stifled and frustrated by the family’s limited options in contrast to the dad’s big promises of success. It felt very warm and real and honest, and I loved the grandma in it, how she was bawdy and funny and how the kids would one day appreciate that she wasn’t the usual storybook grandma they thought they wanted.

Nomadland: a really beautiful drama directed by Chloe Zhao from 2020 about people affected by the 2008 recession and living rural, nomadic lives in 2011 in the U.S., working seasonal jobs and escaping stagnant lives at home, without much of a future to see. Frances McDormand and David Straitharn are the big names in it, but the film’s power comes from its unprofessional actors largely playing versions of themselves, with characters ranging from a 75-year old woman with terminal cancer living on the road in her trailer with plans to die by her own hand in Alaska, to a wayward young man with addiction issues missing a distant girlfriend, to a lonely old man whose son died from addiction and not being able to cope with outliving his son. It’s a slow and quiet film that I really enjoyed, and I felt at peace with it.
Hello, My Name is Doris: an indie comedy from 2015, directed by Michael Showalter, starring Sally Field as an eccentric old woman with quirky fashion sense and hoarding issues who falls for a much younger coworker of hers (Max Greenfield), and is obsessed with her crush on him. It’s both a little sad to see his Brooklyn hipster crowd treat her like a pet, while also feeling sympathy for her as a much older woman who still feels vital and youthful in her heart, while also sad to see her in denial about her hoarding mental health issues. Sally Field is really great in this movie, she just embodies this character so well with heart and humor and understanding from age and experience.

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