I’m a little late here, but the fact that Paul Rodgers, in any given format….Free, Bad Company etc isn’t in the Hall is a travesty. He is the best Blues Rock singer I’ve ever heard and I’ve heard and played with some of the best. He’s a great guy, down to earth, easy to get along with, who has a gift (timing and tone, showmanship) and isn’t afraid to let it rip. Always a fantastic show with Paul and Simon Kirke. I did love Andy Fraser’s bass playing as well. And Paul Kossof and Mick Ralphs were both great players with different styles that complemented the pure rock those bands put out with Paul Rodgers leading the charge!
Tom Johnston
_____________________________________
From: Paul Brady
Subject: Re: Trick Or Treat
Hi Bob,
Thanks for digging out Trick Or Treat again…and the fulsome praise. Bonnie Raitt hits the stratosphere when she opens up in the second verse!
Not sure where you heard I was managed by Paul McGuinness but that wasn’t the case, though we are passing acquaintances.
At the time I was managed by Damage Management out of London.. whose other act was Dire Straits. It was David Bates of Fontana Records UK who put me with Gary Katz.
We started in A&M studios and the Village Recorder in LA, moved to Bearsville NY and mixed in the Hit Factory NYC. It was a whole new and hugely enjoyable experience, working with the heavy gang. Gave me a lot of confidence. You’re right  there never was a breakthrough cover of ‘Can’t Stop Wanting You’, though it was recorded by Johnny Hallyday on his 1994 album ‘Rough Town’ featuring, among others, Bonnie’s long time bass player Hutch Hutchinson. I’m still at it, writing and recording and, until Covid, playing live. Too late to stop now!
Stay well and keep on telling it like it is.
Paul Brady
_____________________________________
From: Steven Page
Re: Steven Page Live From Home XLI
Thanks so much for coming to last night’s show and for writing about it. I’m so glad that the best part for you was the same as it is for me – the folks at home, singing along, kibitzing in the chat, and even playing along on their own instruments! It blows my mind that we’re at forty-one shows now, with no sign of letting up, as this incredible community of people from all over the world keep showing up every week and honestly, I’m only a small part of the whole thing now and I love that. At Christmastime, the audience set up a gift exchange for each other, without my involvement at all. Their holiday gift to me was a surprise video of fans playing and singing one of my songs, “The Chorus Girl,†which I re-ran last night. The Patreon has been a great plus as well, where, for $5/month, folks can re-watch or catch up on any past shows they may have missed.
Last year, after seven years of writing and prep and workshopping, my first musical, Here’s What It Takes, was in rehearsal at the Stratford Festival in Canada, where it was supposed to open in May and run all summer. Obviously, that, along with any touring plans, disappeared and I went home and tried to figure out what to do. Lots of musicians were doing livestreams on Facebook and Instagram, but with the help of my friend Dan Mangan and his company Side Door (sidedooraccess.com – check them out), I tried out doing a paid Zoom livestream and was hooked. I have my screen set up so I can see 49 people at a time, so it doesn’t feel like I’m singing into a void. Instead, I watch folks singing along, or making dinner or doing yard work and we all feel some connection that doesn’t normally happen in online concerts.
After a few shows with Side Door, I started doing them on my own (well, not entirely – my wife, Christine, runs the Zoom and the Discord server upstairs). I started working at making the audio and video as good as possible, and have tried to make each show as different from the week before. That’s the part that’s really different from touring – on the road, with a completely different audience every night, the set list needs to be a fairly consistent balance of hits with some newer stuff added in, which makes each show necessarily similar. With the weekly livestreams however, many of the audience are regulars, so I’ve learned to stretch and do stuff I’d never have done otherwise: I’ve played every album, both BNL and solo, in order, I’ve done every b-side, covers, holiday songs, new stuff – with a running tally of 210 different songs so far. You’re right that it’s definitely geared toward the die-hard fan, but we all are welcomed and will soon feel like they’re among friends, in-jokes and all. For me, and for so many of the audience, Saturdays are something to look forward to and the shows give us a chance to reset. It’s done wonders for my mental health! I have no idea how this might change the way I play shows once we’re all together in person again, but I know all of this has forever changed my relationship with my audience in a truly positive way. I miss my friends and family and I miss being on the road, but I’m happy to have found some silver lining.
So I pulled up HBO Max on the Roku to watch a legendary drama that I’m not going to name, because I’ll just get feedback telling me to watch it. But before I dug in, I decided to check out the offerings. I do this on the streaming apps on a regular basis, I want to know the landscape. And I saw a line listing HBO Max originals. This intrigued me, because I didn’t think there were many. However I could scroll and there were more than I thought. And many I knew. But what was “Love Life”?
I clicked through to see. It was a relationship show. I love those. So I decided to watch.
There was a British woman doing the voiceover so I believed it was a U.K. show. Then again, when the characters started to speak, they were definitely American, and the show took place in New York City. As for the lead, I’d never seen her before. She was cute, and she was imperfect. She had a bump in her nose, not very big, but when she turned sideways, you could see it, and usually these comedies, which is what “Love Life” turned out to be, are peopled by 10’s. Quite often as a result of surgery, but they’re unbelievably beautiful, better looking than anybody you went to high school with. And if you’re further down the looks scale, you’re the butt of jokes, or the smartest one in the room. Yes, stereotypes.
And I can’t figure out who this lead actress, who is so damn good, is. So I stop the show and look her up.
It’s Anna Kendrick. Oh yes, now I can see it. Why couldn’t I see it previously? Maybe it’s the hair. And I always considered Kendrick a serious actress, I first encountered her in the George Clooney vehicle “Up in the Air.” I thought she was slumming in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, which I’ve never seen, but as I scanned her filmography, I found much of her work was in flicks not considered highbrow.
Oh, one other thing. In this show Anna is incredibly skinny. Yes, she’s short, but you can see her thigh gap, her legs are like sticks. Can I say all that? I don’t think so, in today’s world it’s called “objectification.” Then again, they’re selling us looks in these shows, although much less in the foreign series I tend to watch. So I google to see if Kendrick has anorexia. I find no links, but I do end up viewing a clip of “Pitch Perfect” and she’s ultra-skinny there too. And if she’s this skinny on screen… How much can Anna Kendrick eat, she must be hungry all the time. What kind of message are they sending to women?
So, you can compare “Love Life” to “Sex and the City.” But unlike Sarah Jessica Parker, Anna Kendrick is believable in the role. Candace Bushnell, who wrote the original “Sex and the City” articles, was a smoky bombshell. All you had to do was look at her, and especially after she spoke, you got it, Bushnell radiates sexuality. Parker does not. Parker can be sunny and cute, but sexy is not what she’s selling. Not that Kendrick is selling sexiness in “Love Life,” she’s selling personality, she’s wholly alive, imperfect, but you’re drawn to her.
So in the first episode, Kendrick has a one night stand. The guy gets her digits but never texts. Oh, the agony. We’ve all felt it. Nothing else matters, are they gonna reach out? This is depicted so well in the show. And then there’s the issue whether you can take the initiative, especially if you’re a woman.
So, Kendrick ends up having a relationship with someone who places their job first and having had too much to drink, the two of them get into it. This is another place we’ve all been. The evening started out fine, then the liquor flowed, and what comes out shouldn’t. Kendrick’s significant other labels her a “tour guide” and she takes offense. Certain things cut to the bone, certain things you can’t take back.
And the relationship ends.
And I’m not sure if this is a show where every episode is a new guy, or whether they’re building to a lasting relationship that leads to marriage and children and… Am I gonna watch another episode?
I do further research. On RottenTomatoes “Love Life” blows 64% on the critics meter, and 83% on the audience one. I prefer the reverse, I tend to trust the critics. Streaming TV is laden with popular shows that people love that are pure dreck. And all the reviews say the show is “slight.” Hmm…not a ringing endorsement. So I decide to go further, I decide to read the actual reviews, however dangerous that might be. Dangerous because reviews are legendary for revealing the entire plot. I start at the bottom, with the conclusion, I try to read as little as possible to get a feel for whether the reviewer is thumbs up or down.
And most of the critics are laughing at the show. Kind of snide. Except for one. And now I’m torn. Are the critics right and I should move on, or are they so jaded they can’t see genius? Well, not exactly genius, but that which deserves attention.
You see “Love Life” gets relationship nuances down cold. In a way I rarely see.
And most streaming is crime focused. Or thriller. Comedies are rare. And “Love Life” is not “Ted Lasso,” where what appears to be shooting low is actually playing on a higher level. “Love Life” is straightforward, it either works on the surface or it does not.
But it does!
Screw the critics, I’ll watch another episode.
And in episode two Kendrick gets involved with her ex-boss. This happens all the time. The guy has a crush, but not until circumstances change do they act on it. And Anna is a good girl, but not so good she won’t go with the flow, sex is not taboo. But is he really, officially divorced? You’d be stunned how many people say they are and are not. And until they are, you don’t want to be involved with them, they haven’t gotten over the final hump which affects you so deeply, even though those in the process are unaware of or deny this.
And Anna is going with the flow until…
Like a good girlfriend, she accompanies her boyfriend to the suburban house where he grew up for his dad’s wake.
No, there’s something that happens before that! Kendrick and boyfriend are eating dinner at a restaurant, having a good time, and a woman approaches the table and the boyfriend instantly falls into a comfortable conversation with her and…never bothers to introduce Kendrick. This can be a faux pas, but it can also be a sign, that you’re just not that important to them, or they’re ashamed of you.
But Kendrick is game and engages this woman, who complains about her work, even though she’s playing at quite a high level. And then this woman asks Kendrick what she does for a living and Anna has to lie, and then the other woman picks up on this lie and says they’ve got to get together to talk business and…thank god this woman finally gets up and leaves.
Kendrick feels inadequate. She’s working catering jobs. Is she just a wannabe? She thought she was doing so well, living in the city, having this boyfriend, but is she really nowhere? Her boyfriend and his woman friend seem so grown up, Anna puts them on a pedestal and can’t quite tear them down, as she’s still sharing an apartment with roommates, trying to get it together.
So at the wake… The boyfriend doesn’t introduce her again. And she’s lost, but trying to do her best in a situation where she’s got no reason to be there other than the connection with the boyfriend. She does her best, is game, introduces herself to someone, but they don’t care, they punch the clock on her. And then Kendrick decides to help out in the kitchen, but then the family treats her like the help! And then Kendrick has too much to drink and…
The ex-wife shows up.
And the family treats the ex-wife like a goddess. The ex-wife tells an off-color story and the room erupts in laughter. Kendrick stands up and tells a story and you expect her to make a fool of herself, having had too many drinks, but the truth is what she says is ultimately poignant, well done, but there are crickets, no one reacts, there is silence.
And then the boyfriend ends up dumping her. He tells her he just isn’t ready for a new relationship, even though the two of them have been together for months.
And Kendrick returns to the flat where her roommates are shocked to see her, they haven’t seen her in such a long while, they thought she was gone forever. This is how it happens in young love, you put your friends aside, and then you find out you need them. Oh, that’s another scene, where this ex-boss boyfriend, who is not that much older than her friends, is bored and acting sheepish around them. He doesn’t want to party, he came all the way from Brooklyn and paid for everybody’s dinner, can he just go home and sleep?
I’ve been there too. On his side. You’re involved with someone younger, you think you’re hitting it off, and then they want to do something you outgrew years ago, what do you do?
As you can tell, I’m really enjoying “Love Life.” I couldn’t fall asleep thinking about it. I could have burned through all ten episodes last night.
And that’s the funny thing about all the reviews, all the critics complain and then say they ended up watching all the episodes. Why? No one said it was a hate-watch, they just couldn’t let go. You don’t find this kind of truth everywhere.
But maybe the series gets worse. Maybe I’ll stop watching.
But why was there no buzz on “Love Life”?
Because it was released last spring, as the first HBO Max original. And it being HBO critics expected brilliance and with so few subscribers at the time, people didn’t even have access, there couldn’t be any word of mouth, if there was even gonna be any.
You know whether this is your kind of show. Don’t put it down and call it a rom-com, because that’s not what it is, it’s not a chick show, it’s a relationship show, about the interaction of men and women. And that’s ultimately what it comes down to. You know the paradigm. The couple has been together for years and then one spouse wants to leave, saying they’re sick of getting no attention, of having the other work all the time. And what does the overworking spouse always say? For sure, one thing they never say is good riddance! No, they start falling on their sword, they say they’ll change. And if given a chance they backslide. And after the inevitable breakup, without a relationship, they’re devastated, they can barely function, all they can focus on is what they’ve lost.
So you know whether you want to check out “Love Life” or not. Either what I’ve said above has intrigued you or it has not.
As for HBO Max, it’s now on the Roku. The streaming device of choice. Sure, I watched on the iPad app before, but now it’s so much easier. As for a subscription…chances are you have one anyway. Because HBO is oftentimes baked into a cable offering. That’s the way they tier them. Chances are you’re not paying the fifteen buck retail price, which has me scratching my head why AT&T doesn’t lower the HBO Max price, but my point is you probably have access. Download the app and sync your subscription. It used to be harder, but let me just prepare you… You want your cable company e-mail address and password, and you want your smartphone in your hand.
That’s forty one, if I can still decode Roman numerals.
The best part of this two hour and fifteen minute zoomcast was the very end, when the camera pointed at all the attendees…THEY WERE SO NORMAL!
I do it for my fans…
Fans have become caricatures, people with no life, who will talk nonstop about their faves, post hate to naysayers online…and there are some of those, but they are not the majority, by far, and you need a fan base to keep your career alive. A fan base is more important than a hit, you can have a hit and no fans, but chances are you won’t have too large of a fan base if you’ve never had a hit.
Steven Page has had hits, with his prior act, Barenaked Ladies.
Then again, BNL were from Canada. Which is a giant high school. Try to act like you’re cool, better than everybody else, and you’ll be put in place by your peers. Then again, Canada outpunches its weight in music because the government supports it, and the country has a great safety net. Let me set you straight, with national health care you can leave your job whenever you want, whereas in the States, if you’re not a gig-worker to begin with, you’re married to your job for the health insurance.
And since content supersedes flash, since the interior is more important than the exterior, BNL built a fan base and then even ended up having hits, which was so unpredictable, then again, even twenty years ago Top Forty had a much broader playlist, “One Week” could not triumph on the format today, then again it’d be killer on TikTok.
Seymour Stein signed BNL. As much credit as Seymour gets, it’s still not enough. As much money as he’s made, it’s still not enough. Mo Ostin said so in the new book “Sonic Boom,” which charts the history of Warner Brothers Records, not that I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Its author has written a string of music books with little fanfare, because there’s seemingly always another one much more authoritative, with access, that supersedes it. But the problem with “Sonic Boom” is Peter Ames Carlin’s writing style. When he sticks to the facts, he’s great, but he too often extemporizes, creates images out of thin air trying to replicate a feeling decades prior. If you want to do this, write fiction. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff in “Sonic Boom,” but if you paid attention and lived through it not much of it is new, read Stan Cornyn’s book, then again, I always thought that Mo’s parents changed his last name, turns out he did, from Ostrofsky, back when he was at UCLA, as bad as anti-Semitism is today, it was even worse then. But the shocking thing about “Sonic Boom” was how long ago all that was, even though some of the acts still have standing. Bob Morgado ruined the Warner Music Group twenty five years ago! Remember when we were all glued to the saga? Probably not.. I spoke to a music business class last week and as I was telling my story I realized…most of the students weren’t even born in the days of Napster, time fades away.
So, Steven Page left BNL. Not that so many people even knew who Steven Page was, but if you were a fan of the band…
And now Steven Page is doing his best to make the internet work for him. That’s what you’ve got to do if you made your bones in the pre-internet era, you’ve got to use the new tools to cobble together a living and stop complaining that Spotify stole your cheese. Back then you could only sell music and go on the road, now you can do so much more!
So, every weekend Page has an extravaganza, not only on Zoom, but Patreon too.
Here’s the deal with Patreon… You can make money on the platform, but you cannot grow your career. If you’re fine with that, cool, but too many are not. It’s a closed system, it’s an echo chamber, since the material is paid for, it cannot be displayed anywhere else, unless you want to undermine your subscriber base.
Now the great thing about Page’s Patreon is it’s CHEAP! You can’t think from your perspective, how much money you need to make, you’ve got to look at it from a fan’s perspective, how much they’re willing to pay. Page’s prices are three, five and ten dollars a month. Most people have uber-expensive tiers, not realizing those who sign up end up looking like pariahs, they’re the definition of income inequality, or people who are so into it as to be out of it. It’s about the community, not the dollars. If you have a community there’s always a way to make a buck.
As for the live show I just watched?
It’s eight bucks. And that’s nothing, you don’t worry about the price if you’re interested in going, and two hundred fifty people were. And almost all of them watched the entire presentation, two hours and fifteen minutes worth, because they paid! If you pay you have an investment, if you don’t…you have no problem clicking off. Even so, a hundred thirty five minutes is a long time. But what else do you have to live for, especially when your fave is performing right in front of you!
Yes, this show was for fans only. If you’re not a fan, you won’t be interested. You need to know the songs to make it work. Sure, Page threw in tidbits, like a few bars of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You,” but he said he was influenced by the KISS cover, not the Argent original. Then he speculated that the song had made Rod Argent rich. Um, no. If Argent is rich at all, it’s from those Zombies songs. And “Hold Your Head Up.”
And this was an all request show. And he played twenty four songs, you can see the set list here: https://bit.ly/3ulseIP And he sat down at the piano, after standing with his guitar, and suddenly I realized…HE’S PLAYING “BABY SEAT”
That’s my favorite BNL song. You should check it out:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2NOWk6H
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3sd791A
It’s melodic and hooky, and even has a forceful descending riff, but it’s the lyrics that put it over the top. THEY’RE CLEVER! And their cleverness does not detract from the song. Page is not showing off, he’s evidencing intelligence, remember when that was a characteristic of music, before it was only about sex and good times?
And there was a Zoom text thread. Where the participants could interact, community is everything. I bet the return rate is extremely high.
But during the final song, “Brian Wilson,” when the camera switched to the attendees from Page I truly became elated. Because these people…
Were just like me.
They weren’t dressed up for the disco. They didn’t focus on their look. They might be fans, but they were bringing home the bacon too, they had jobs, they had lives. And Steven Page made their lives that much more special, worth living. And since the show was not made for everyone, just the core, those who knew the songs by heart, it was even more special. Going on Twitch and playing to millions might be exciting, but twenty five years later tell me how many people are gonna pony up to watch you on screen anywhere.
These people on screen were the bedrock of music culture. There’s this fantasy that everybody in America is cool, or struggling to be so. But that is completely wrong. Sure, most people care about money, but mostly they care about being comfortable, having a life.
So let’s do the math. Two hundred fifty people at eight bucks a head is…two thousand dollars. Might seem like chump change to you, but it’s all net. Oh, Steven had some musicians play along with him at times, but if they got paid at all, how much could it be? And Steven played from his own home. Zoom costs are de minimis. Not many people can clear two grand for just over two hours work. There were no road costs, no travel expenses, no hotels and no meals…
But the major label system enabled all this. Without those BNL hits, Steven Page would have a hard time cobbling together this audience and sustaining it. But he is a beneficiary of what once was. Now you’ve got to build it yourself, and that’s a very slow process.
So, there’s a paradigm here. Maybe it works for you, maybe it doesn’t.
But it works for a lot of fans. And without fans you’re out of business.
Steven Page has fans.
P.S. I was totally wrong about Page’s Patreon price levels. Turns out if you scroll down the page you can click on a button that says “See all 7 levels.” And then you find tiers for twenty five dollars, and fifty and a hundred and two hundred. But, like I said, this smells bad to me. It replicates the income inequality which has ravaged our country. Make it democratic, make it feel like everybody’s in it together. Then again, I must admit, there are people who just can’t help spending all this dough on you. But, the truth is you don’t want to know them, which the act has to to charge these prices. You’ve got to give access, that’s part of the deal. And there are some superfans who are great, who can become real friends, who know where the line is. But most of them are delusional and crazy. They think since they spent that money they own you, they’re entitled to more, and if you don’t deliver, they’ll scream to high heaven that they’ve been ripped-off. As for the opposite paradigm, look at Garth Brooks, who charges less than any superstar and plays in a city long enough to satiate demand, killing scalping. Garth is forever, too many acts are not.
https://www.stevenpage.com
“Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince”: https://amzn.to/3aBvic8
Streaming TV could save independent cinema. Assuming purveyors decided to go directly to the platforms and outlets paid for exhibition.
The indie movie model is broken. You make a film, tour it to film festivals for years trying to build buzz so that a distributor will purchase the rights so they can exhibit it in cinemas to a tiny audience. Good luck getting your money back. Then again, a huge slice of independent films are not worth seeing at all, especially in today’s overburdened world where scarcity is history and more entertainment than you can ever consume is just a click away.
Every Friday, the “New York Times” publishes umpteen movie reviews. Sometimes I scan the ones labeled “Critic’s Pick,” but generally I ignore them. I’m not going to the cinema…as a matter of fact I stopped going to the cinema years ago. Nothing is so hot that I can’t wait for it. That’s a factor of age, but it’s also a factor of so much happening that nothing is gigantic and everything is ultimately at your fingertips as time passes on. But the problem with indie pictures is you make a mental note that you want to see them, and then you forget about them, because too much time goes by before they’re available on TV and there’s a firehose of product every week, overwhelming the consumer.
The key is to go day and date. Theatres and flat screen at the same time. So that marketing can truly work its effect and the public can embrace and talk about a film.
This happens all the time with streaming TV series. A buzz builds, and then everybody is watching, they want to find out what is going on. Happened with “Stranger Things.” Happened with “Tiger King.” Could have even happened with the new Woody Allen series, except HBO is dripping it out week by week, it thinks it’s building enticement, water cooler talk, but the truth is just the opposite, we live in an on demand world, we want it all and we want it now, and that’s not how word of mouth works anymore, the channel is too clogged, you’ve got to concentrate the buzz or else you’re overlooked, forgotten.
But not “Nomadland.”
To tell you the truth, I didn’t know much about it. I just looked to see if the reviews were good or bad. I don’t need a recitation of the plot, shoot the critics who do that, they ruin the experience, which should be fresh and exciting, positively new.
Not that I cannot tell you what “Nomadland” is about…
Itinerant workers who live in vehicles. Some outsiders, choosing this life, others forced into it by work conditions. That’s right, you can just be going about your life and you can lose your job for no reason that you control. Your performance can be great, but the plant closed. Or the hedge fund which purchased the company loaded it up with debt, took dividends and then the enterprise went bankrupt. You lost your gig, they made millions. Another reason why I believe today’s America cannot sustain, why we’re inching towards an Arab Spring. The conflagration will be unforeseen in terms of exact date, but it will happen, income inequality is just too great, people are pissed, when they’re not working like dogs just to keep their heads above water. Hopefully, unlike in the Middle East, the end result won’t be strongmen/dictators, but the present economic model in the U.S. cannot hold.
So, what you see is Frances McDormand living in her van, going to work at the Amazon warehouse… Which looks just like the Amazon warehouse, I’m stunned the company let them film there, it’d be hard to replicate. And it’s not solely that the workers hate their jobs, they have a sense of camaraderie, they’re not lonely. And life is about working and conversation, laughs. You want to be so busy you don’t have time to think about your problems, because the alternative is anathema. If you’re broke all you’re thinking about is your next gig, which is elusive. And the truth is no one cares about you anyway, the American safety net is hobbled, and jobs are so specialized that they’re hard to get as you get older without specific skills. You’re forgotten, you’re waiting to die, if you don’t take your own life in the process.
And at the beginning the film is so bleak. It’s gonna be eighty degrees in L.A. next week, but the first twenty-odd years of my life I lived in four season world, and I don’t mean the hotel. You’ve never known loneliness until you’ve driven alone through the west on a winter’s day, gray, with few towns along the highway, the mountains in the distance, covered in snow, partially obscured by clouds. This is why California has such a big homeless problem. The homeless got smart, they went where the weather suited their clothes. And I’m not joking here, especially in an era where middle class people can become homeless in a matter of months, if not sooner.
And then it becomes about choices. One thing is for sure, you’re off the grid. It’s just you and the land. You can’t reintegrate even if you want to. You don’t have a computer to keep tabs on jobs. You probably live outside of cell range. So, you might as well check out the sights before you pass, probably from untreated medical problems.
These are the forgotten people. They’re trying their best, supporting each other, but the truth about homelessness is it’s very hard to climb out of, after a very short period of time, months, sometimes weeks, you become depressed, you lose the skills, clothes, attitude and money to get back into the mainstream and…
You live in your van.
Now “Nomadland” is not a typical movie, with the so-called three act structure, building towards a satisfying conclusion. It’s more of a slice of life. But in “Nomadland,” the stories are real. Literally vandwellers portray themselves. This is not a Hollywood fantasy, this is real life.
And Frances McDormand kills.
Reach forty in Hollywood, maybe a few years before, and you’re confronted with the choice…do you get plastic surgery to look young, or do you let yourself age naturally? Those who want to work tend to do the former, and they end up looking like zombies, of no determinate age, the laugh is on them, never mind that they’re never believable in roles. But Frances McDormand took the latter choice. And at first she looks plain and unattractive, but then she evidences this inner glow that draws you to her. This is what we really want in life. Forget about the celebrities jumping from beauty to beauty, getting married four times, they’re never really known and never really happy. Unless you wait until the honeymoon period is over, unless you struggle, knowing some aspects of the person will never change, unless you look inside yourself, at your own flaws, you never have a serious relationship, irrelevant of what the law says. And when you bond this way and it breaks up…it’s very painful. Fern married Bo and then he got sick and died. What do you do with that? You wonder if you did enough, if your choices were right, and the hole inside…it never seems to go away.
So in “Nomadland” very little plays out according to audience expectations, where we’re looking for that spark of romance and a happy ending, because that’s not how real life works. Yes, chance encounters change your course, but they don’t always yield friends and happiness. The goal is to keep on keepin’ on, unless you just get so burned out you want to close your eyes forever.
Life becomes very basic on the road. After all, you can only take so much stuff with you. You find out what is truly important. And, at the end of the day, it’s always about people and experiences, which are free to everyone, assuming you want to partake of them, as opposed to locking yourself into the rat race or being so afraid of your own shadow that you never go out of your house, you never risk.
So I don’t want to rate “Nomadland” on a scale of one to ten, never mind one to one hundred. It’s got excellent RottenTomatoes numbers, but that might skew your expectations.
“Nomadland” is a ride, with people that you probably have never encountered. But for most of us, we’re just a step away.
And at first you’re riveted but wincing. Then you’re wondering about the choices. And then you’re wondering about life itself. Do you compromise, what truly makes you rich, we all need money to survive, but once you can pay the bills then what do you want to do?
Now chances are you’re not going to go to the theatre, not in this Covid era, and the truth is “Nomadland” skews to an adult audience, not that youngsters won’t enjoy it and become edified, but oldsters are the ones taking precautions.
But through the magic of Covid positivity, the changes that have been wrought in the landscape that are actually beneficial, you don’t have to go to the theatre to see “Nomadland,” you can just pull it up on Hulu.
Maybe you don’t have Hulu. Is it worth it to sign up for one month? I’d say yes, because there are a few other must-sees on the channel, like “Prisoners of War” and “Normal People.” But the real reason you want to fire up Hulu and watch “Nomadland” is to belong, to be part of the discussion.
We’re all functioning on skew lines these days. There’s very little we interact on, very little we have in common, very little we can talk about. But with “Nomadland” just a click away on the flat screen, we can all pull it up “opening weekend” and converse about it amongst ourselves.
That’s one of the reasons I watched it. I wanted to get in on the mania. This was not a marshmallow test, I saw “Nomadland” reviewed in the papers and it built a desire to immediately watch it, when most people did, to be part of the excitement, to feel like I belonged, to feel like I’m part of this great patchwork of people living in the land we call America. There’s a lot to talk about here, a lot to unpack, and now we can all do it at the same time.
You’ll continue to hear buzz about “Nomadland.” You’d hear more if it was on Netflix, the streaming kahuna, or maybe even Disney+, but this film is the first dent in the movie universe this year. It’s an E-ticket ride, you will be touched, you might even be scared.
