Nomadland

Nomadland: A woman’s vagabond life after she loses “everything” but her van to the 2008 crash

Nomadland, directed by Chloe Zhao (based on a book, “Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century” [W.W. Norton, 2018] by Jessica Bruder), opened in Theaters and on Hulu yesterday (Feb. 19).

I have to say, this movie has the simplest of plots.  In 2011, a cement factory in a small Nevada settlement (maybe near Burning Man?) closes, and the USPS actually retires a zip code by closing the post office.  This was Fern’s (Frances McDormand, of course) last employer, but in (the crash of) 2008 she had “lost everything”, almost.

But she mad a go of refurbing her van, and traveling around the country as a hippy.

She encounters people who consider her newfound vagabond identity a bit fake.  One elderly woman with cancer tells her she’d better learn to change her own tires and change her own oil, or she could die out here.  Some of criticized the film itself as a bit fake, with only one token black character.

She travels to Arizona, then to the Badlands in South Dakota, where the most striking photography is offered.   I visited the place (60 miles SE of Rapid City) in snow in April 1974 after finishing a benchmark in Minnesota while working for Univac, at a time when my own life at 30 was going through transitions (and right as we were coming out of the gas shortage).  I visited the North Dakota badlands in 1998.

Later she ventures to the outskirts of LA to visit a sister and borrow some money (a difficult scene) before returning to her own wasteland in Nevada.

Badlands picture, Wikipedia.

Name: Nomadland

Director, writer:          Chloe Zhao, Jessica Bruder (book)

Released: 2021

Format:            2.39:1

When and how viewed:          Hulu subscription, 2021/2/19

Length:            106

Rating: R

Companies: Fox Searchlight (now part of Disney)

Link: official

Stars: ***__

(Posted: Saturday, February 20, 2021 at 10 AM EST)