Nomadland

I was surprised by the lack of plot in this film. It focuses on Fern, a woman whose life has fallen apart after her husband died and her town fell apart due to the local factory closing. Fern chose to buy an RV and travel around America doing seasonal jobs to get by. The film follows her journey as she meets various people living a similar life.

For me, there are two main themes of the film. The first is grief with Fern's travels initiated by the loss of her husband. Interestingly many of the other Nomads have a similar background. I wasn't entirely convinced when I heard that the majority of the cast were not actors but it really works. Few actors can match Frances McDormand in terms of terms of displaying convincing emotion and the solution to this issue is to use real people with real emotions, making it convincing because it's real. 

The other theme is about the gig economy and how difficult life can be financially in the 21st century. It's had to imagine in the UK an entire town vanishing due to a local employer closing and it's interesting to see how this rips apart a whole community. There has been some criticism of the film for the fact it doesn't really criticise the gig economy or the infamously difficult workplace that is Amazon but there's an indirect critique in the background and the film certainly doesn't promote them. 

Frances McDormand is utterly superb here. Fern is a very quiet and disconnected character but the script cleverly shows us moments when she becomes more outgoing and forms connections. In a not dissimilar way to Three Billboards, Fern has an engulfing grief but it's far less angry here. It's fascinating that she doesn't settle down when the chance arrives and that's because she has always been a nomad and her home was her husband rather than the place. 

The whole film is full of melancholy but there's a beauty to be found within it too. There's the human beauty of people coming together and forming bonds but also the beauty of the great outdoors with Fern visiting some utterly spectacular places in her journey. Zhao's other triumph beyond managing the cast is how stunning the film is to look at albeit in a quiet and gentle way. 

Mesmerizing and challenging in some ways, Nomadland is a film unlike any other I've seen before. It blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction in a fascinating way. My biggest struggle with it is the bleak tone but even so I can still appreciate that it's a phenomenal film.