This is an apology! I messed up big time! I don’t like to make a big thing of my errors, but since this one is already a big thing, I figure I might as well put neon lights around it and dance in front of it. Unlike Justin Timberlake, I’m not taking 20 years to deliver my mea culpa.
In my review of Nomadland, I misidentified Swankie as the person in the film who died. I have been informed in no uncertain terms — by our readers as well as by Searchlight Pictures, the film’s distributor — that she is alive and well. The only mitigating factor I can cite on my behalf is that I wrote about six films this past week plus a column on soccer transfers. It’s no wonder something slipped through the cracks. Somebody remind me about this the next time I tackle six movies in the same issue, which may be sooner than you think. Do not be fooled by the swaggering tone of my writing, because I am genuinely mortified with myself. Fort Worth Weekly regrets the error, almost as much as me.
Foremost, the person I owe my apology to is the woman in question. I’m sorry, Swankie. Wherever you are in these United States right now, I hope you’re keeping warm and comfortable amid this cold snap. Similarly, I apologize to my readers, who reasonably expect me to get stuff like this right. I fell down on the job, but I promise to be more diligent about these things. It has been 12 years since I made a faux pas of this magnitude (when I misgendered director Darnell Martin while reviewing her film Cadillac Records), and I’m setting my sights on going another 12 without something like this happening. In the meantime, I have amended the article to eliminate the error. As I mentioned, Nomadland is at two Tarrant County movie theaters this weekend, and it will be on Hulu the following week. Go see it, it’s good.
Thank you.
Well, the movie itself indicates she dies.