Reminded me of Nomadland, a film that did nothing for me personally. Look, if you like films with pretty postcard cinematography and plotless slice-of-life storytelling, then this is for you.
The documentary-esque scenes interviewing random non-actors that "rising star" Lily Gladstone encounters on her journey may appeal to some, but I found them unaffecting and disingenuous. The people were so obviously acting unnaturally during the scenes where they were supposed to be interacting with the character Lily plays. You can't pretend they weren't voguing because they knew they were on camera, which means it was no longer captured reality in any sense.
The format also severely limits the negative interactions that can take place because these non-actors are obviously going to want to seem pleasant and high-energy on camera. They share their homespun wisdom which lacks real insight and offers the viewer nothing to latch onto, really. The only real humanity here is etched in the wrinkles on their faces, something standard Hollywood fare is normally reluctant to feature in its stars. Some will find seeing these non-actors on camera refreshing, but I personally couldn't get past how sugarcoated everything was.
Gladstone has a pleasing presence, but she's not asked to do much emoting. She wanders from place to place, having quotidian interactions with strangers and engaging in the most banal of conversations. The format of these unnatural interactions ensures that Gladstone comes across as a passive viewpoint character. At some juncture, I expected the film to do the requisite character development for a film, but it never did. Nothing Gladstone's character says gives us much indication of who she is or what motivates her. We have a dead grandmother. That's it.
Finally, the big question, was this film saying anything important? I'm sure many reviewers, myself included, want to give this film credit for portraying aspects of the American experience less-seen in film. However,
Morrisa Maltz has absolutely nothing to say about these experiences, either visually or through character's dialogue. We listen to countless radio hosts share opinions on numerous issues as Gladstone channel surfs during her long drive. But we are given no indication of what Gladstone thinks of these opinions or visual context to iron out Maltz's understanding. The scenes with Native American characters seem designed purely to convey the humanity of these people. Is that such a novel concept in 2024 that we have to give a film credit for putting it on display?
The conversations these characters feature in are dull as dishwater and offer no insight into their feelings about anything except quotidian existence. One scene features a character telling us the names of all the children in a room and their ages. In a fictional film, this would never be tolerated because it's information we don't need to remember about characters that don't even speak. Documentary filmmakers need to adapt more effectively to the needs of narrative filmmaking if they want their movies to engage. At 1 hour and 25 minutes, this film was a drag for me personally.
