What the hell is a "Great Recession?"

@therapist said:

Refreshing to watch a nice movie. No special FX, zombies or explosions. Just a nice story.

Not sure about 'nice'. It's a beautifully made movie, but really, really bleak.

I have problems when cultural elites make movies that look for nobility in the suffering of blue collar workers. There is a subtext to this movie that renders the raw desperation of these people as some kind of choice. While it admits repeatedly that these people's journeys begin with some kind of personal tragedy, the idea that a life on the road is some kind of release or liberation for these people is equally pervasive.

Did it never occur to the author of the book and the producers of this movie that broken, desperate people will try to pass off how they are living as a choice to avoid humiliation? We live in a society where ownership of property is the most salient measure of human success. To have reached ones senior years with almost literally nothing is to be considered a failure, even if it might not be something within a persons control. Sometimes the last refuge of the person who has nothing is to declare that is how they choose to live.

They might not have agency, but they can at least salvage some dignity with the illusion of agency.

I also have problems with the pseudo documentary character of this movie. It really does look and feel like we have a professional, Oscar winning actor striking up random conversations with actual people. McDormand is a powerful actor, but we know she is acting. And almost everyone else, well, isn't. It's very disconcerting.

And if it tells us something about American life in the early 21st Century that a simple documentary couldn't- then I can't see it. If something jumps from documentary into drama then there needs to be something by that alteration that expands or deepens our understanding.

I really felt at times I was watching a documentary vs a film! Not sure if that's good or bad. Well done and all, but not worthy of Best Picture IMO.

@Jacinto Cupboard said:

I have problems when cultural elites make movies that look for nobility in the suffering of blue collar workers.

That's exactly why I despise Hillbilly Elegy, ugh.

Did it never occur to the author of the book and the producers of this movie that broken, desperate people will try to pass off how they are living as a choice to avoid humiliation?

I don't think people do that. They're not hipsters, they're people who obviously didn't win in life and more often than not, they blame society in general or just avoid being judged completely.

I also have problems with the pseudo documentary character of this movie. It really does look and feel like we have a professional, Oscar winning actor striking up random conversations with actual people. McDormand is a powerful actor, but we know she is acting. And almost everyone else, well, isn't. It's very disconcerting.

I personally can't stand Hollywood A-listers playing the downtrodden. Did this film need FM? Did it really? Why not at least use an unknown? Or, I don't know, make an actual documentary?

@MongoLloyd said:

I don't think people do that. They're not hipsters, they're people who obviously didn't win in life and more often than not, they blame society in general or just avoid being judged completely.

There's a thread running thru this film that the life depicted is a choice; an act of freedom or rebellion. When Fern has opportunities to 'settle', she rejects them. And that whole 'great jobs at amazon' or wherever thing keeps popping up.

Of course there are actual Grey Nomads; people who have gotten to retirement, sold or rented out their homes, bought vans, and intend to travel as long as they can. You might have seen the bumper sticker: 'Adventure before dementia!' Well, Fern is not one of those people. She, and most of the people in this movie are more like the Okies of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath.

For whatever reason this movie muddles these outwardly similar groups, and gives Fern an agency that she does not in fact have. Either the writer and director didn't understand what they were looking at, or deliberately gave agency to Fern and others to give the film uplift. Either way it jars with me and I think it is dishonest.

I should watch it, but I would suspect that the writer/director team sought to romanticize the last resort aspect of van life. I am sure for some it's a choice, but having spent a lot of time in Venice, California, where there are always a lot of beat up RV's parked on certain residential streets and having researched van life, I know for most, it's not a choice. Living out of a van or an RV or a camping trailer is a pain in the as.s. for multiple reasons. That said, I'm older and have been researching van life in general as backup plan because I have very little of what could be called a retirement fund.