Add “Nomadland” to the pantheon of great American films. It’s so damn good and emotionally impactful, yet also deceptively simple that somehow the deserved huzzah of “masterpiece” doesn’t quite comfortably fit as a description.
“Masterful,” however, describes it to a T, and in every way a movie can excel. And it does so with a grace and subtlety that fits the gray tones and downbeat notes that pervade this largely fictional movie, yet ultra-realistic journey with a 61-year-old widow who lives in her van and roams the nation’s heartland working seasonal, temporary and minimum wage jobs and living among other nomads.
It’s based on the 2017 non-fiction book of the same name that explored the phenomenon of drifting workers on wheels, usually seniors. The film’s primary character, Fern, whose husband has died and who loses her job when the gypsum plant that’s the sole industry in her small Nevada town shuts down. She is a composite of actual people profiled in the book; others featured in the book play characters based on themselves. This imbues “Nomadland” with a powerful palpability.
Fern ends up working at an Amazon warehouse, a campground and the famed Wall Drug in South Dakota. She joins gatherings of other nomads and learns survival tactics for houseless living.
The story is all subtle, small strokes. Yet director/screenwriter Chloé Zhao invests them with the weight that they must carry within the existence portrayed.
Much of the film unfolds in a atmosphere of near-perpetual twilight, representative of most of those found in the nomad subculture, who are in the later years of their lives. The muted tonality of the colors have an effect almost akin to the movie being shot in black and white; there’s a genuine subtle beauty to its look and the landscapes it travels.
The dialogue in its script is terse and sparse. As much that matters in the story is shown rather than told. In the latter part of the movie, Fern is invited to settle down in a home with a friend from the road who has landed back under a fixed roof and makes a romantic offer to her. The next shot shows her answer wordlessly yet at the same time potently.
It all adds up to make “Nomadland” feel as real as the best documentary. Every element unites into a seamless whole that touches deep emotional places and captures telling truths about the margins of current American life.
The warm beating human heart at the center of this work that pulses blood throughout every vein and capillary of the film is Frances McDormand as Faye. It has earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination, which she won, as did “Nomadland” as best picture. Someone else may well get the trophy. But none of them will have given a performance as deft and powerful as McDormand in this movie; she far outdoes her two previous Best Actress title wins by thoroughly inhabiting the woman she plays.
As I watched “Nomadland,” I pondered how there but for the grace of God or luck of the draw or fate’s fickle fingers certainly goes I, maybe you as well. Not too long ago, a beloved female friend of mine climbed into my car (on what I hoped she felt, as I did, was something kind of resembling a date). At the time, I was chugging along in the gig economy doing what I called my “cash-flow job” for a delivery service here in Texas called Favor as a hedge against the inevitable fiscal valleys of being a freelance writer and editor, especially in this age when my primary profession is in major transition and shrinking as a viable and survivable career option. She saw some of the tools of my trade and an empty coffee cup in the back seat and innocently asked if I was living in my car.
I chuckled and said no. Yet, I had to later reflect on how at least a few times in recent years I verged somewhat close to having to do so.
Films don’t often come as note perfect in every way as “Nomadland.” It is not to be missed.
Documentary Film: “Hemingway” – The pivotal and highly influential 20th Century American writer and larger-than-life character is the latest topic tackled by master PBS documentarians Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. His literary importance and robust appetites for life and love pack full all six hours of the three-part movie with notes of interest.
Documentary Film: “Elizabeth and Margaret: Love and Loyalty” – With “heir and a spare” sibling issues within the British monarchy playing out in near-daily headlines, this look at the current queen and her sister on Netflix is fascinating, informative and touching.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prism net.com.
From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2021
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