Fern wanders the west in her van. Here she spends time with her fellow travelers stopping at a van-park. Paul Goldfinger photograph from the video. 2021.
Francis McDormand stars in this bare bones film: Nomadland. Paul Goldfinger photo from the video.
By Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor. Blogfinger.net This re-posted BF review is dated March 7, 2021.
Nomadland is a very basic film, almost monotonous in its tone. It is shot mostly in low light and is permeated by a feeling of sadness. Yet, as you watch the “story” unfold, you learn about how a person, alone, can make a life on the road with hardly any money and no significant support systems.
The people depicted in this film live in small tight vans which sometimes have no heat. She is a member of a subculture of singles who roam from place to place and stay in transient camps where they tap into the way-of-life from which they draw sustenance.
They all form a loose network where they lean on each other, but ultimately they are alone, and many prefer it that way. They spend time at various van-parks, but eventually they move on, perhaps meeting again in an indefinite future.
They are a species of man which has existed for thousands of years–they are nomads.
An example would be the archetypal cowboy of the frontier west—alone against the elements, facing dangers, but managing to survive moving from place to place with his horse and stopping at little towns for whiskey, food and women.
Fern is a middle aged widow who used to work at a factory in Nevada. After her husband died and her workplace closed, she sold everything, bought a modest used van and set out roaming the western states.
She finds a way to survive, picking up seasonal jobs along the way. She makes friends, but they are all temporary and renewable. She has barely enough room in her van to heat up some canned soup.
Fern interacts with people similar to her who have few material possessions but who try and discover the best in others and who share their meager existences. They sit around a fire and sing songs and exchange stories, but it’s difficult to ever feel really happy or satisfied. Sometimes they have barter or trading sales where they put out the simplest objects to provide a measure of variety and treasure.
Nomadland truly has a slim plot, but the pieces fall together to create a world where humans can manage to survive with their humanity intact and somehow to find meager solutions to their hardships. Fern is barely able to maintain her sense of self, but she tries to do that as difficult as it is. This effort stands out in the movie and reminds us how important it is to remain decent.
In one scene she meets a young man and she offers him one of her two sandwiches. She has road friends, and they try to cheer each other with simple gestures and objects such a ribbon in a woman’s hair.
Is it depressing? It is, but you are drawn in and find richness, and somehow you appreciate the elements of what it means to be a person in a very elemental environment.
I was fascinated by this film, having been a fan of Francis McDormand ever since I saw her in Fargo. And the themes appeal to me viscerally as it must do for most who see it.
Congratulations to Chloé Zhao, the brilliant film maker who wrote and directed the picture. McDormand is one of the producers, and she is married to one of the Coen brothers–a duo of off-beat film makers well known in Hollywood.
So far, having recently opened, the film is winning all sorts of awards including Best Picture at the Golden Globes. This is appropriate because this wonderful movie is profound and worthy of attention. Nomadland taps into the basic desire of people to understand and help each other, whereas the usual movie bill of fare seeks out violence, crime, sex, science fiction, horror, and pain.
This film is timely in our society where we now tend to be more alienated from each other for a variety of reasons and maybe we forget to be kind and attentive to others. A simple message.
I would show this film to a teen-ager. (Oh, yes, also an adult.)
Here is the NY Times report on this topic dated April 26, 2021.
- On April 25, 2021, Nomadland won Best Picture at the Oscars, and Francis McDormand won Best Actress (her third Oscar.) The films director Chloé Zhao was Best Director
GILBERT O’SULLIVAN: