Nomadland (2020)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Nomadland (2020) – C. Zhao

Work has been difficult and there are times when it is easy to feel dispirited and cranky – so, it is worth watching a film like Nomadland that helps to put things back into the proper perspective.  I am lucky to have what I’ve got – a loving family, a secure and fulfilling job, a house to live in, and much much more.  In the film, Fern (astonishing Frances McDormand) does not have all of these things – her husband has passed away and the company for which they worked (a mining outfit in Nevada) has shut its company town and kicked everyone out.  Now Fern lives out of her van, travelling across the Great American West doing seasonal casual labour (preparing Amazon packages before Christmas), and generally feeling very lonely.  That is, until another casual worker suggests that she hook up with a group of nomads in Arizona who offer support and a community, living off the grid.  It isn’t an easy life, but she makes friends, played by real Nomads (Linda May or Swankie) and by David Strathairn (always good to see him – not far from his solid work in John Sayles’ films).  This blend of documentary/reality (real Nomads, real locations, and McDormand really living the life for months) and fiction (actors, staged set-ups, screenplay) is director Chloé Zhao’s strengths – her previous film, The Rider (2017), follows a cowboy with a head injury who needs to find new dreams starring the actual cowboy in a lightly fictionalised version of his story. Both films take their time and allow viewers (and characters) to soak up the scenic landscapes and the emotions at hand. (Some of these vistas reminded me of a long ago trip from Minneapolis to Missoula with Wall Drug and the Badlands dotted in between).  We learn a little about the nomads and their life stories – why they live on the road – and this content can be very moving. Wisely, the film stays away from politics. But it also asks us to consider Fern’s motivations, especially contrasted against a couple of opportunities to rejoin “normal” (bourgeois?) society, and we are left to think about what’s really important and what is not. And, in this way, you can get your perspective back.