NOMADLAND : Tuesday 12th January 2021.

I saw 'NOMADLAND' at my local independent movie theatre earlier this week and this highly acclaimed M Rated American drama film is Directed, Written, Co-Produced and Edited by the Chinese movie maker Chloe Zhao in only her third Directorial outing after 'Songs My Brother Taught Me' in 2015 and 'The Rider' in 2017. In September 2018, Marvel Studios hired her to direct 'Eternals', based on the comic book characters of the same name, which is set for a release in early November 2021. This film is based on the 2017 non-fiction book 'Nomadland : Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century' by Jessica Bruder. The film saw its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September last year, goes on general release in the US on 19th February 2021, has generated universal Critical acclaim, and has so far collected seventy-nine award wins and another fifty-four nominations from around the awards and festival circuit. All off a budget of a mere US$6M. 

The film opens up with a brief history of the town Empire, in Nevada where the US Gypsum plant closed down in January 2011 after 88 years of operations, and by July of that same year the post code, 89405, is discontinued, rendering the once populated town of some 750 residents practically a ghost town as businesses closed and people left their homes in search of better prospects and employment elsewhere. One such resident is Fern (Frances McDormand who also Co-Produces here) who worked in Human Resources at the gypsum plant for a number of years alongside her husband who was a long serving employee and who passed away sometime recently. In the grips of winter with a thick blanket of snow on the ground, Fern is seen in a lock up garage packing up various essentials into a van which she has modified for a road trip, turning her back on Empire once and for all it seems. She intends to travel the country in search of employment, and lands a job at an Amazon fulfilment centre during the winter in the lead up to the busy Christmas and New Year season. 

A friend and fellow work mate named Linda (Linda May) invites Fern to visit a desert winter gathering in Quartzsite, Arizona organised by Bob Wells, which provides a support system and community for fellow nomads and vandwellers. When the seasonal work at Amazon ends and Linda leaves, Fern, who initially declined the invitation, changes her mind as the weather turns much colder and she struggles to find work in the area. At the gathering, Fern reconnects with Linda and meets fellow nomads and learns basic survival and how to become self-sufficient whilst travelling the long and winding road. 

After the gathering has ended and most of the other nomads have moved on, Fern remains in no hurry to go anywhere. She gets to know Swankie, a fellow nomad who has also stayed behind to repaint her own van before hitting the road again. Some days later, Fern's notices a blown tyre on her van, so she asks Swankie for a ride into town to buy a spare. Swankie berates Fern for not being better prepared, and invites her to learn more road survival skills, during which time the pair bond. Swankie tells Fern about her cancer diagnosis and shortened life expectancy of about eight months, and her plan to make good memories on the road rather than waste away in a hospital. They eventually go their separate ways.

Fern later takes a job as a camp host at an RV park. There she comes across David (David Strathairn), another nomad she met and danced with back at the desert community. She cares for David when he falls ill, accompanying him to the hospital for emergency surgery, and bringing him food. Upon his release, seemingly fully recovered, the two of them later take casual work at a local restaurant - Wall Drug Store, in Wall, South Dakota. One night David's adult son visits the restaurant looking for him, informing David that his wife is pregnant and asking him to come meet his future grandchild. David is hesitant, but Fern encourages him to go. David asks her to come with him, but she declines.

Fern lands a new job at the beet harvest, but her van breaks down and the cost of the repairs comes to US$2,300 which she can't afford. After calling friends to ask to borrow money and drawing a resounding blank, she visits her sister and her husband at their home. Her sister loans her the money, but questions why Fern was never around in their life and why Fern stayed in Empire after her husband died. Fern later visits David and his son's family - the grandchild is now five months old and she learns that David has elected to stay with them for the long-term. He offers her a room to stay in permanently in a guest house on the property, but she decides to leave after only a few days, becoming uncomfortable in a real bed with a solid roof over her head.

A year has now passed and Fern returns to her seasonal job at Amazon and when that stint comes to an end she revisits the Arizona commune. There she learns that Swankie has died, and she and the other nomads pay tribute to her life around the camp fire at night. Fern later opens up with Bob about her relationship with her husband, and Bob shares the story of his adult son's suicide five years ago at the age of 28. This particular day would have been his 33rd birthday. Bob expresses a love for the fact that goodbyes are not final in the nomad community, as they always promise to see each other again 'down the road'. Later, Fern returns to the ghost town of Empire and clears out the lock up garage of all her possessions saying to the manager that she no longer has any use for them. She visits the now vacant factory and the home she shared with her husband before getting back on the road again, and continuing with her journey wherever the road takes her. 

Apart from a small handful of professional Actors, the nomads in 'Nomadland' are real vandwellers and nomads living on the fringe of society and who have turned their back on consumerism, commercialism and the very culture that has rejected them. Make no mistake, in case you were unaware there is no sex, no violence, no explosions, or car chases, no gun play or close quarter hand to hand toe to toe head to head combat in this film. Instead what Zhao and McDormand, who is in every scene, manage so deftly to do is capture the spirit, the empathy and the imagery in a completely understated way to propel the viewer right into the very heart of Fern for all her regrets, her struggles and her dogged resilience for the first time in her life to be free and to make the most of the open road and explore the vast wide expanse of the American mid-west. This is a slow, meandering, thought provoking film from a Director standing on the edge of greatness, an Actress who is already there combined with non-Actors portraying fictionalised versions of themselves, impressive cinematography and a haunting piano soundtrack that all add up to a film that is worthy of the many accolades already bestowed up on it, and the early Oscar buzz. Catch it on the big screen - you won't be disappointed.

'Nomadland' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-