Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/ShudderWhen the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandated standard inclusion of rear backup cameras in automobiles made after May 2018, the bureaucrats in charge had safety at the top of mind. Innovation in the art of the kill, one of horror cinema’s most cherished mores, probably didn’t factor into the agency’s decision. But five years after the fact, Joe Lynch figured out how this stock feature in today’s cars could facilitate
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Nomadland may have won three Oscars; three big ones, no less – Best Picture, Best Director for Chloé Zhao and Best Actress for its star, Frances McDormand. But all over Britain this week there are going to be living-room conversations beginning with a little sigh and the words: ‘Do you want to give this much longer?’
For like so many Oscar nominees this year – Minari, Sound Of Metal, Judas And The Black Messiah – this is very much an arthouse picture rather than a commercial film.
Yes, the story of a 60-something woman travelling the bleak but photogenic western states in the battered van in which she lives is beautiful to look at. McDormand is quietly fab as Fern, and Zhao does have interesting things to say not just about America’s economic present but its economic past too.