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🎙️ EPISODE 314: 02.07.2021
Nomadland is a fictional work inspired by a non-fiction book (Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century) about the phenomenon of older American workers, many impacted by the '08 financial collapse, traveling the country like "nomads", in vans or campers in tow, in search of employment. The beauty of the wide open American west and midwest, the great plains and more is on full display. |
While generally enjoyable, well-intentioned and heartfelt, it seemed like two different movies were happening here: one, a documentarian-style look at this "nomad phenomenon," and alternatively, a deeper picture about what leads Frances McDormand's character Fern to choose said lifestyle. The latter never felt like it went deep enough despite that being the central framework, the beginning and end. Though I just lauded
Sound of Metal for staying in the narrative lane, I have to do an about face here.
Nomadland doesn't quite take the politics far enough. The use of non-actors in some important roles lent it a raw feel but it devalued the film on a core thematic level. They chose the life for wholly different reasons than Fern. While all the stories address freewill and what it means to be free, I felt there was an anti-capitalist sentiment that didn't get the attention it deserved. And so the bookends were by far the strongest moments.
Empire is a real place and the story is fascinating. And the Amazon warehouse scenes–where they take on any and every worker for the holiday rush–is the perfect example of the human ruins late capitalism leaves in its wake. I wanted more of this, frankly.
The great character actor David Strathairn plays a road companion whom Fern meets and grows close to on a fully platonic level. Their scenes together are fantastic. I could watch an entire movie of this dynamic and the complexities of this relationship developing. This storyline felt like a specific third angle, though it could certainly jive with either of the core threads.
At one point Frances McDormand takes a pretty gross shit in a big bucket inside her van. Moments earlier she attended a nomad seminar where a speaker explained the X's and O's of van life bucket-shitting. On a core human level this is, of course, visceral and compelling. But so are the series of events which leads a person to be shitting in a bucket in a van which is also their home in the first place.
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