Nomadland is a beautiful and poetic film that is one of the best films of the year. Out of all the Oscar contenders I had left to see, this is the one I was most anticipating, and it delivered the goods. This film moved me in ways I didn’t imagine were possible, a very intimate look at a lifestyle that not everybody is built for.
Based on a book of the same name, this is a road film that follows Fern (Frances McDormand), a woman in her sixties. Fern abandons the town of Empire, Nevada, after its sheetrock factory closes (even its zip code was discontinued) in the Great Recession. She embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
This was Frances’s first live-action film since she won her second Oscar for Three Billboards, and she made a strong case to win her third. I don’t think she will win it because it’s too soon, but she will most certainly be in the conversation. As this was one of her career’s very best performances, and as my second favorite actress, and I didn’t expect anything less from her. While very subtle, her performance is transformative as, just like the character, she also lived out of a van.
McDormand legit performed several of the jobs done by people who do nomadic work that inspired the book, such as harvesting beets and packaging Amazon orders. So it’s safe to say she got into the character, which I loved because it shows on screen. I didn’t see her acting. I saw her genuinely become Fern. She effortlessly became this character. This was a very physical performance as she learned all these traits and she did all the hard labor.
The film’s other MVP of the film is writer/director Chloé Zhao who also produced the film and served as the editor. She delivered a masterclass in filmmaking on a low budget, and I see her realistically landing 3-4 Oscar nominations. Like McDormand, she also lived out of a van, and you can tell by her work in this film that just like me, she found herself fully invested in this nomadic lifestyle.
The life these nomads live was exciting. I was fully invested in their stories. I felt like I was becoming friends with these people myself. It low-key made me want even to try this because it just looks like a way to live stress-free and not worry. In typical Zhao fashion, she uses real people in this film like in her other films, such as The Rider. So the stories we hear are of the people who are portraying it, so it adds an extra impact.
She also does a great job editing the film, as this has a great pace and wasn’t as dull as I feared. By truly capturing the nomads beautifully and intimately, she puts us right in action. This helped a lot because it made a subject matter that on paper may sound boring to be engaging. Despite its thin plot, she takes her time and is patient with her story, and I’m glad she was. The film runs for an hour and 40 minutes, which was the perfect time for it. I’m very excited to see what she delivers with Marvel’s Eternals, which arrives next November. In an ideal world, we would have gotten these two films in back to back months, and it would have shown her range as a filmmaker as they are entirely different films.
The cinematography was fantastic and beautiful. It perfectly matched Zhao’s camera work in capturing the beauty of the locations they visited in the film. It’s a piece of Americana that doesn’t get much attention.
Nomadland is a film that won’t be for everybody. Casuals will hate it due to its thin plot. However, I feel die-hard cinephiles like myself gravitate towards this and appreciate the beautiful portrait that Zhao delivered. One of the best films of the year that will undoubtedly be a big Oscar contender.
