Nomadland

 

• Nomadland 2020
• Director: Chloé Zhao
• Based onbook: no
• Cast: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn and many nomads playing themselves
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Frances McDormand –Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Hail Caesar, Moonrise Kingdom, This Must Be the Place, Burn After Reading, North Country, Almost Famous, Fargo, Mississippi Is Burning, Raising Arizona
• David Strathairn – UFO, American Pastoral, Hotel Marigold, The Tempest, Good Night and Good Luck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A League of Their Own, Silkwood
• Why? Frances McDormand
• Seen: 1 January 2023      

       Fern (McDormand) is a grieving widow, lives in her camper van, works at Amazon and a variety of other jobs around the country. She drops in on a network of nomads who wander by choice, living on the fringes of society. She makes friends, leaves friends or they leave her, connects with her sister now and then and moves on.

       In some ways I can identify with Fern. I’ve imagined being a nomad, alone, free. Who hasn’t? But mostly the film makes me feel uncomfortable and I don’t know why. Maybe because a nomadic life without books and films really doesn’t appeal to me, and I like the friends that I have.

       So it’s not really a film for me but McDormand is as always sensational.      

3 * of 5