NOMADLAND – Review

The following review originally appeared on December 4, 2020

As the temps turn chilly and you’re counting down the days till the year’s last big holiday, most folks are looking forward to hunkering down next to the fireplace (or just clicking on the thermostat) and whipping up a nice meal, complete with baked treats, to share with visiting family and friends. Yes, that’s the plan for most. But there’s an ever-growing segment of the population that can’t really afford to “put down stakes”, as they must go “where the work is” just to survive to another year. Right now, not like the Goads in THE GRAPES WRATH. These real-life wanderers, basically playing themselves, support one of our finest actresses in the new narrative feature that truly feels like a documentary, as we enter a place (or is it a state of mind) they call NOMADLAND.

The short title card at the beginning of the film tells the story of Empire, NV. When the market for its main industry, sheetrock, collapsed, the factory closed turning it into a ghost town (its zip code was even dissolved). Then we meet one of its former residents, middle-aged widow Fern (Frances McDormand) as she grabs a few things (her late hubby’s old jeans along with blankets and plates) out of the boxes piled up in their storage unit. She fires up her battered van and hits the highway. At a big department store, she’s spotted by a family from town. They had hired Fern as a tutor and express their worry over leaving her home. Fern waves away their offer of money, insisting she’ll be fine. Later she checks in at an RV campground to settle in a spot her new employer has paid for and reserved. Bright and early that next frigid morning she arrives at her seasonal job at the big Amazon processing center. Her co-worker and new pal Gay (Gay DeForest) tells her of a community of folks living in their vehicles who pool their resources in a deserted dusty spot a few hours away. The weeks pass and Amazon releases their “part-timers”, so Fern has to leave her “temp spot”. She decides to join Gay at the nomadic “commune” organized by a promoter of “the lifestyle”, Bob Wells (himself). Fern makes several new friends and feels an emotional pull (perhaps an attraction) to the lanky, silver-haired Dave (Davis Strathairn). As the temps start to rise, she’s on the road again to find work. For a time she’s a clerk at an outdoor precious gem market, then it’s a turn in agriculture, helping process beets. Then the thing she fears most finally happens, her beloved “Vanguard” breaks down. The repair bill is so high that she must ask her estranged sister for a loan, which involves a bus ride to her plush suburban home and having to endure an awkward cook-out with her neighbors and friends. Soon she’s mobile again and joins Gay on a park ranger/custodian gig where they run into Dave, who brings her along to his next job in one of the eateries in the massive Wall Drug in South Dakota. When he gets a surprise visit from his son, telling him that he’ll soon be a grandpa’, Dave decides to take him up on his offer to move in and get off the road. But before he goes, Dave extends an invite to Fern. Could this also be her escape from the near-endless cycle of driving and drudgery?

After winning acclaim for such diverse roles as the sunny Marge of FARGO and the dour, rage-filled Mildred in THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, McDormand draws us in with the quiet Fern, a woman that’s been traumatized by economic disaster and cruel fate. As we see in her nearly dead gaze of exhaustion, she must push herself to the brink to the brink of collapse to merely “get by”. Those deep dark circles under those heavy-lidded eyes convey the weariness of having to watch her soul mate wither away along with the comfortable surroundings of her home. And though she’s open to new friendships along the trail, she’s leery of getting too close, knowing that everything could just evaporate. Though McDormand holds in her despair, we see it bubble to the surface as she lashes at real estate profiteers at the big family BBQ. The only serenity Fern finds is in the simple everyday pleasures of a blazing late-night campfire, a quick cocktail with a work pal, or a soothing skinny dip in a secluded stream. Her somber tone hides her quiet desperation and self-reliance. She had depended on her husband, and will only rely on her skill set at least until the van breakdown pushes to seek aid. It’s a compelling performance in a career that seems to be packed with memorable work. It helps that she has a terrific rapport with the film’s other screen vet Strathairn, whose David feels a kinship with the sullen, tough-as-nails Fern. He wants to protect and help her but knows that he may desire more from her than she’s able to give. And both actors work seamlessly with all the actual nomads who handle their scenes as though they were old movie “pros”.

Writer/director Chloe Zhao, in adapting the book by Jessica Bruder, uses a real cinema verite style, with her camera becoming a “fly on the wall” drinking in the “alien world” on the fringes of “nine to five” society. She shows us the joy of their communal gatherings while never shying away from the underlying despair and the near-constant air of danger (the shadows drifting by the foggy van windows). Most of these people care nothing about “the romance of the open road”. They have to be on the move to survive since the “American Dream” is so far out of reach (Gay wants to retire, but $500 a month can’t cut it). With them, it’s not “shop till you drop” but rather “work till you drop”. And maybe expire on a filthy factory floor. The use of real locales (yes, it’s an actual Amazon warehouse), intimate cinematography (you can almost feel the chill from the grey skies) and the talented McDormand make for an unforgettable portrait of the always mobile working class that exists in NOMADLAND.

3.5 Out of 4

NOMADLAND opens in theatres everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at the Marcus Ronnie’s Cine IMAX