It might have been the delicate ache of Ludovico Einaudi's music that reduced me to tears, or the bone-deep conviction of McDormand's performance. When I watched the movie a third time recently, I found it emotionally overpowering in ways that I'm still trying to get a handle on. Nomadland takes its time sinking in, but sink in it does. That may not sound like comfort viewing in these times of heartbreak and uncertainty, but this isn't a despairing film. Nomadland seems to understand loss - material, emotional and spiritual loss - in a way that few movies do. As the movie follows her across the country, from Badlands National Park in South Dakota to a Nebraska sugar-beet field ready for harvest, we come to understand some sense of Fern's liberation but also the hardships of adapting to her new life. Some, like Fern, have grown restless and tired of ordinary life for reasons they can't fully explain. When someone offers her a place to stay for the night, she replies, "I'm not homeless I'm just houseless." Without romanticizing a difficult way of life, Nomadland makes clear that not everyone hits the road due to financial desperation alone. It's my home."įern's use of the word "home" is telling. The mechanic recommends she skip the repairs and buy a different vehicle, but Fern declines, saying, "I can't do that. At one point, her van breaks down and she has to take it in for repairs. It's not the last time Fern will have car trouble. Another of the movie's memorable real-life characters is a gruff but compassionate woman named Swankie, who helps Fern change a flat tire and scolds her for not having a spare. One of her new friends, Linda May, describes how crushing poverty almost led her to take her own life fortunately, the presence of her two dogs made her reconsider. It's hard to imagine another actor who could share the same spaces with them as casually as McDormand does, whether Fern is bubble-wrapping packages at an Amazon warehouse or mingling with other travelers in a crowded trailer park. The film sets Fern adrift among these real-life transient workers, several of whom were featured in Bruder's book, and who tell their stories again here. The journalist Jessica Bruder wrote about Empire and the larger phenomenon of modern-day American nomads in her 2017 book Nomadland, from which this movie was freely adapted. in a large van that will also be her home. Over the next year or so we'll follow as she takes on work wherever she can find it, driving across the U.S. We see Fern packing her things and leaving Empire behind. But in 2011, in the wake of a devastating global recession, the local gypsum mine shut down and Empire became a ghost town, displacing hundreds of residents in the process.Įmpire was a real place, but the main character in this movie is a fictional creation: She's a widow in her 60s named Fern, and she's played in a remarkable performance by Frances McDormand. I plan to check his story out next.Restless and tired of ordinary life, Fern (Frances McDormand) takes to the road in Nomadland.Ĭhloé Zhao's amazing new movie, Nomadland, begins with an elegy for Empire, Nev., one of those old-fashioned company towns that thrived during America's post-World War II manufacturing boom. While not an actor, he is so charismatic and authentic. The third act is a bit jarring tonally as it shifts towards scenes of a "normal" suburban life, which I'm not sure were necessary, but thankfully it was short.Īnother fascinating real-life character is Bob Wells who apparently is the face of this lifestyle. She is mesmerizing in a few scenes where she flits around in gorgeous natural settings like an eight year old beholding these views for the first time. If it wasn't for her star factor, McDormand could be mistaken for her real-life counterparts. Nomadland is comprised mostly of actual American nomads. From her debut in Blood Simple to her iconic role in Fargo to her latest gritty, down-to-earth performance in Nomadland, she disappears into her roles like a perfectly fit glove. It is hauntingly beautiful, beguiling and poetic while not sugar coating a difficult lifestyle.įrances McDormand has become a legend. Nomadland is a surprisingly balanced look at the van living, nomadic life within America.
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