"Nomadland" is an observant, down-to-earth exploration of the lives of modern-day nomads
“Nomadland” Film Review
100/100 “sweet”
By Quinn Marcus
I sat through the credits of this film, in awe of what I had just seen. I only do this for a select few movies I see when I know they’re truly special. Nomadland was directed by Chloé Zhao and is her third feature film, previously helming 2017s The Rider, and now Eternals for MARVEL. My first few 2021 reviews talk about movies each made by a budding director, and all of them have been excellent films, but Nomadland is easily the best new film I’ve seen in over a year. Honestly, I had almost no idea what to expect going in, but Nomadland surprised me with its documentary-esque approach to its intense subject. It says it on the poster, it’s shown in the trailers, but this film isn’t entirely about nomads, it covers nature, tranquility with one’s existence, death, and yes, society’s forgotten. I haven’t had a good cry watching a film in a while, but Nomadland brought me to the verge of tears. This was an experience like no other, unmatched by any mediocre film that came out in 2020s horrendous movie year. This isn’t going to be a traditional review, I want to take a jab at analyzing the film just a bit, but I’ll still talk about what I loved.
Nomadland tells the story of a woman in her sixties, who after losing everything, decides to embark on a journey to the American-West to live as a modern-day nomad.
It’s a very simple story as you could probably tell from my one-sentence summary, but the themes Nomadland explores aren’t your typical piece of cardboard, if you think about them, they’re pretty complicated. Let’s start with the marvelous directing by Chloé Zhao. This woman is going to be a force of nature in the future, already doing things that are rarely practiced in film. According to an article by IndieWire, most of the entire cast except for a few members were actual people, not actors. The article also mentioned that while the real-life nomads were told about the film, they were asked to be themselves. Hence, the documentary feel of the film. What Zhao managed so well was beautifully capturing the lives of these real people, and it shows, Frances McDormand’s character clearly had a narrative, but the film was mostly improvised. Apparently, Zhao was also given pointers from legendary filmmaker, Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) Which leads me to the next thing I want to talk about, the cinematography. Like Malick’s Days of Heaven, Nomadland seems like it was filmed at a specific time of day, usually around magic-hour to nighttime. The film is absolutely gorgeous, but it’s also very observant.
We’ll often have these long, smooth takes that take us through the daily routines of these nomads. If there’s one thing you’ll take away from this movie, you’ll know exactly what it’s like to live in a van. I can picture a lot of people saying ‘oh, nothing happens in this film,’ and while that may be true, the point of Nomadland isn’t to give you an emotionally complex narrative, it’s to depict a slice of life. Another thing I loved was the melancholy soundtrack, it was peaceful, moving, and added greatly to the tone of the film. The use of blue in this movie stood out to me, there was rarely a time when there wasn’t something blue in a shot. Blue in film symbolizes isolation, passivity, and calmness, pretty much what this film is about. There’s a scene when McDormand talks to another elderly woman named Swankie, and she say’s “I felt like I've done enough. My life was complete. If I died right then, at that moment, would be perfectly fine.” This quote was taken from an amazing scene in which Swankie talks about a day she spent on the river with swallow’s flying above her. This is a perfect example of passivity and calmness in the film, being at one with nature has given Swankie a sense of acceptance, she’s no longer afraid to die of Cancer. In fact, she doesn’t seem afraid of death at all, and if you hadn’t already guessed it, that’s when the waterworks kicked in.
Isolation is a little easier to discuss because, in a way, the nomad community that McDormand meets has been stripped away from society. Some talk about how they’ve worked all their lives, and it’s amounted to nothing. An entire town lost its zip-code, leaving many families homeless, including McDormand’s character, Fern. The film crawls under your skin in that way, how these people don’t actually consider themselves homeless, and in some cases, prefer the freedom they’ve acquired. It made me further recognize the difference between wants and needs, and how these nomads have nothing, and yet they have everything they could ever need. The van symbolizes life, and the people you meet along the way, this is proven by a quote from Bob “I've met hundreds of people out here and I don't ever say a final goodbye. I always just say, "I'll see you down the road". And I do. And whether it's a month, or a year, or sometimes years, I see them again.” This vehicle represents the connection these people have to each other, it makes them recognize that they’ll never truly have to say goodbye to each other. Another huge theme the film covers is how we’ve lost our connection to nature and all its gifts. The film was shot in IMAX, it now holds the record for the lowest-budget film ($6 million) to be filmed with an IMAX camera. Some shots are absolutely mesmerizing, it has the grand scale of some of the best nature documentaries today, the film doesn’t feel contained at all, it’s relaxed and open.
If Frances McDormand doesn’t win an Oscar this year, I’m done with the Academy Awards. Seriously, she’s a wonder in this film, natural, stern, and breathtakingly real, I never once thought of her as an actor playing a part, to me, she was a nomad. I was also quite impressed with the non-actors of the film. The nomads McDormand meets are absolutely incredible, these people were a masterclass in acting, without any acting! So many things could have gone wrong filming these nomads, but it works almost perfectly. One thing I did not expect was another actor who was clearly in on it with McDormand, David Strathairn (Lincoln). He’s also magnificent, and once again, whether anything was scripted or not, he was so authentic when on-screen just like everyone else in this fantastic film.
The final verdict is…Nomadland is a masterwork in every way imaginable, a refreshingly original, meticulously shot, well-acted drama that will touch your heart as well as your mind…$PLURGE IT!