Minari & Nomadland
By Michael Baldelli
Minari and Nomadland are two of the best films of 2020 and both are destined to garner their share of awards this season. While both films share quite a few similarities, it’s their differences that make them a perfect companion piece. In many ways, Minari and Nomadland are opposite sides of the same coin, both films depicting a snapshot of American life over the last century, highlighting the very best America has to offer and the very worst.
Minari takes place in the 1980s and tells the story of a Korean-American family that moves from the West Coast to Arkansas in hopes of starting a farming business. Minari is very much about the American Dream and the cost of striving to achieve it.
Nomadland tells the story of Fern, played by Frances McDormand, a widow in her sixties who loses everything in the Great Recession. After the town she lives in is abandoned once the factory she and her late husband worked at shuts down, she sets off on a journey through the Western United States in her van. Nomadland is very much a film of our current times as it depicts a woman who has worked her entire life and still has nothing to show for it.
Watching these two films within weeks of each other, it really struck me how the American Dream as a concept is truly a thing of the past. It’s something that many immigrants came to America seeking and eventually successfully achieving. In today’s world, you don’t hear about it as much. It’s literally a concept that has seemingly gone extinct.
Minari and Nomadland are directed by Korean-American and Chinese filmmakers respectively, further highlighting the fact that Hollywood continues to evolve in the kinds of stories they are telling.
Minari is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who crafts a fine tale about family and the strife that comes with providing for them. The film is beautifully shot and acted, led by Steven Yeun, who plays Jacob the family patriarch. Most will know Yeun as Glenn from The Walking Dead, but he’s starting to really make a name for himself in Hollywood. He was fantastic in the 2018 masterpiece Burning. In Minari, he gives a beautifully understated performance as a father who starts to crack under the pressures of providing for his family.
While Jacob is a large part of the film, it’s actually his 7-year-old son David whose eyes we see most of the events of the film through. David is played by the adorably precocious Alan S. Kim, who is making his screen debut. Kim really steals the film as a young man who is not only trying to fit into an environment that doesn’t see a lot of Asian people, but he's also dealing with the growing tensions between his parents. David is like most 7-year-old boys and likes to explore and often finds himself getting into trouble. Unfortunately, he’s unable to take part in some activities due to a heart condition, another stress that begins to weigh heavily on the family.
The film really takes off when David’s quirky grandmother arrives from Korea to live with them. The blossoming of their relationship is the best part of the film and provides quite a few laughs and heartfelt moments. Yuh-Jung Youn plays the grandmother and she gives one of the finest performances of the year.
Unlike Minari, which shows a young family working hard to make it in America, Nomadland chronicles a woman towards the end of her career, still struggling to make ends meet. An American Dream that either never was or came crashing down.
Nomadland is directed by Chloé Zhao, who directed the underrated 2017 film The Rider. Where Minari tells its story in a very traditional way, Nomadland is quite the opposite. There’s really no narrative and the film is structured as a series of scenes that, like a nomad, flow from one to the other.
Much like The Rider, Zhao has chosen to infuse her film with non-actors. The result of that is a film that almost feels like a documentary, with many scenes being improvised.
The always dependable Frances McDormand gives another fine performance, although it’s not as flashy as her Oscar-winning work in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. While the character of Fern is more reserved and quiet, McDormand's performance is equally nuanced as we see her grieving for her husband, dealing with a former life that offered stability and coming to terms with a new way of life alone and on the road.
Nomadland is very much a film about community as we see groups of other people like her who wander the country from one place to the next. It’s also about new beginnings and how it’s possible to start over and find happiness even if what you have in material things is very little.
While both films are very different in look, pacing and structure, they share many of the same themes of American life. In a year full of uncertainly when it comes to the film industry, Minari and Nomadland are two of the very best offerings you will find.
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Stars: Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Youn Yuh-jung
Running Time: 115 min.
Director: Chloé Zhao
Stars: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn
Running Time: 108 min.