Two movies were in the spotlight of streaming this weekend, Nomadland, which just released onto Hulu, and I Care a Lot, which is on Netflix. These were two completely different movies. Nomadland was more artistic and is getting attention for its Oscar potential, whereas I Care a Lot was more of a dark comedy that was a fun and enjoyable watch. They were both good movies, but neither quite reached the peak of a great movie.
Nomadland was the story of a lady whose small town basically vanished off the map when the one factory that was there shut down leading to a mass exodus because there was no more work available. So the recent widow renovated an old work van and turned it into her home. She went from place to place, typically places wilder and closer to the desert to work small seasonal jobs for a bit before moving on to another area with a new job. None of these jobs paid particularly well, so even though she lived in a van she was still having a hard time covering expenses, but she did not want to rejoin society, and even though she was offered help numerous times from varying people, she never took it, and it seemed like that was because it did not feel like home. She felt most at home away from society in her van.
I Care a Lot was about a lawyer, Marla, and her partner, Fran, who had an awfully specific legal racket. The lawyer would find old people with dementia or memory problems, hopefully ones without family, and she would make it so the court would appoint her as the legal guardian of these elderly people. Then she would find ways to suck money off them. Then one day, she thought she found the perfect client to take advantage of, Jennifer, a wealthy old lady who lived alone and had no family to look after her. Marla got appointed as Jennifer’s guardian, even though Jennifer was completely healthy, and she had the woman put into a nursing home. In the nursing home, Jennifer could not leave, she could not use her cellphone without Marla’s permission, and she was heavily medicated. As it turns out, Jennifer did have a son, Roman, and he was the head of the mob, so he started to go after Marla. He also tried to get his mother broken out of the high security nursing home. The stakes slowly get raised throughout the movie, and it ends with an excellent twist.
The one aspect both movies had in common was their visual appeal, but even the visual appeal was in two completely different ways. Nomadland give the more naturalistic raw beauty. Since most of the film took place in desert landscapes in the southwest, or up in the Badlands of South Dakota, it gave plenty of beautiful scenery to look at from the sun shining down in the heat of the day, to the painted sunsets over vast swaths of nature. It also depicted the gritty lifestyle in an artistic way that showed that living life this way was not easy, but there was something beautiful about it. This was contrasted with the architectural, interior design, and fashion of I Care a Lot. The outside of the houses and the inside were both very well designed. The interior design that stood out the most to me was the office room that had a bookshelf that went and around the arch of the doorway, but the art decorating the walls and the furniture all seemed to fit together so well, but even when the story got out of the suburbs and into an urban setting, it still looked excellent, even the gym in which Roman was working out in in the penthouse was visually appealing and well designed. It might have been just comparing the fashion of Nomadland to I Care a Lot, or it might have just been good fashion, but even the clothing the people wore seemed artistic in nature.
Nomadland depicted a dying way of life that a small group of people are trying to cling on to with all their might. It was basically a group of old migrant workers, or retirees that wanted to live a more anchor up kind of lifestyle and float around to see different parts of the country. It seemed odd that many of these anti-society people were older, mainly due to the rough nature of their lifestyle. They were typically working very labor based jobs that required a large amount of energy. Also they spent much of their time in isolated areas, so there was major cause of concern of one of these old people having a medical emergency and having no real way of getting help, or once they get help, it might be too late because they were so far from society. They deserve a lot of respect for the way they live. It seemed like they were preserving a way of life that has been around sense people started to form groups, by not staying in one place and going where work, survival took them.
One of the strongest messages that the film put out was that people should not wait till it is too late to go out and explore. One of the stories told was about a man who had worked all his life, and he had one week left till he retired, so he bought a boat to go and enjoy his retirement, but it was too late, he had a heart attack or stroke and had no chance to enjoy it. So many of the people felt like leaving behind society so that they could have more of an experience with the beauty of the Earth instead of wasting away at a job. So even though they were living a much rougher lifestyle, they felt like they were living a more fulfilling life by doing it that way, which sounds nice, but it would be interesting to see how many people could make a life like that work after living with some of the luxuries of the modern world.
In I Care a Lot, Marla was basically a “legal” kidnapper and ransom reciever. She went through the court to get to become the guardian of these old people, but she had a physician on her payroll that she would have go to a judge to tell him that one of her patients was no longer mentally capable of taking care of themselves, then the judge would appoint Marla as the guardian. Marla would then take control of all the person’s assets and put them into a high security retirement home, that was closer to a nice prison. Marla was also close with the owner of the retirement home, so they had an understanding. So not only did she get control of the patients’ money, but then she was able to control where the patient went, if they could see family members, if they could use their phone to contact someone, and their medication. Basically leaving them with no freedom, even if they were fully capable of taking care of themselves. Then in the case of Jennifer, she tried to ransom her back to her son. It seems like to a certain extent that this horrendous practice was based in fact, and that there might be people out there that do horrible things like this.
It was an incredibly immoral movie from top to bottom, and there was no real person to root for. Marla was kidnapping and stealing from old people, and Jennifer and her family were mobsters that were also living a life of crime. So there were no good guys, it also helped that the acting was so well done that all of these people played their role as crappy people so well. The way Peter Dinklage carries himself, not only in this movie, but in other roles as well, he just seems like he has an air of being the most important person in the room, and no matter what he demands the utmost respect. So placing him as a mob boss with a vendetta was a perfect role. Then there was Jennifer, played by Diane West, and she does an excellent job playing a cantankerous sarcastic old woman. She fit into her role perfectly. Rosamund Pike as Marla played the haughty lawyer who acted like she was above all reapproach and was extremely unlikable as well. All these unlikable people starred so well, creating an excellent dark comedic masterpiece.
Both movies were good, and they both received an 85 from me, but I ranked I Care a Lot above Nomadland. This was mainly because I Care a Lot was a more enjoyable movie. These movies were made for vastly different audiences, so if you want to watch something lighter and more enjoyable, watch I Care a Lot, but if you want something more artistic that won many awards from film festivals and will be an Oscar contender, watch Nomadland. When it comes to Oscar contending movies, Judas and the Black Messiah and Trial of the Chicago 7 seem more deserving than Nomadland. I have yet to see Minari, which is also supposed to be in contention, so hopefully I will have a chance to stream it from somewhere soon to find out where it fits in to the awards season this year.
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