Review: ‘Nomadland’ is a film for all of us left out in the cold – austin360

Eric Webb|Austin 360

I cant stop thinking about Fern in the snow.

Played by Frances McDormand in Chlo Zhaosstunning Nomadland, the character is living out of her van, travelingthecountryafter both an economic bust in her industrialcommunity and her husbands death have left her adrift.In a scene that stuck in my head even before Austin was blanketed in white and its worn-out residents were left to freeze, Fern finds herself somewhere out in empty America, the vistas searing, blank and frigid. A woman approachesthe van and tries to get Fern to seek shelter at a Baptist church from an oncoming blizzard.

Fern says shell be fine.

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Shes taking care of herself, but whether shes really fine in a world of loss and loneliness is one of the quiet questions nestled insideNomadland. After a few screenings last year it made Austin360s Top 25 Movies of 2020 its officially in theaters and on Hulu on Friday.

If youre reading this in Texas,you might have to wait a little longer to watch, what with our own winter storm andthe catastrophic failure of our infrastructure. (As of this writing, and after a night spent watching my breath bloom intovapor inside a tent in my apartment, my powers been out for about 65 hours, and Im living out of the American-Statesman newsroom.)But when you do get the chance to watch this film at the heart of which beats the thrum of a humanity that capitalism can bruise,but not destroy I hope youre able to see it with a new empathy.

Nomadland introduces us to Fern as she takes a few things out of a storage locker some dishes, a mans coat she holds like its aliveand hits the open road.She sings What Child Is This? to herself in the van (named Vanguard) around Christmas; she checks into an RV park and looks like shes afraid of a blow;she takes abarely litNew Years Eve meal by herself, party hat and all.Through conversations with people Fern meets along the way, we gather she and her husband lived in a company-run Nevada town, before the jobs dried up and her husband passed away.Now, she goes where she can to get any fleeting foothold.

In one moving scene, she runs intosome familiar faceswho offer to let them stay with her. Bing Crosby sings about the holidays over a store PA system. A young girl whom Fern used to tutor asks if shes homeless. Fern replies, Im not homeless, Im just houseless. Not the same thing, right?

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Thats really Nomadland in a nutshell, a movie that's all scenic route and also all destination. Zhaoembeds us ina loose-knit community of wandererswhose home is wherever they find a fire to sit around and a gig to keep things going.The film was inspired by Jessica Bruders post-recession nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, and the cast includes several real-life nomads, playing fictionalized versions of themselves.Two viewings in,Imstill not sure exactly what to make ofthe films use of real lives in the service of entertainment.Is it condescending? Anthropological? I think Ifeelrespect come off the screen, witha romantic tint.

But if youre thinking about it after, its probably worth watching, and all credit due to Zhao for this lyrical journey.Sometimes Nomadland feels documentary, as when Fern and two nomad friends, Swankie and Linda May (real nomads playing versions of themselves), take in the thrills of an RV show.Its almost voyeurism, as whenwe peer at Fernfloating naked in a stream, driving through an impossibly tight canyon, surveying an abandoned building in her nightdress, shouting on a mountain, holding a baby she doesnt know what to do with. For allthe miles on this road trip, every exit feels worth the stop.

McDormand, who can knock any ball out of the park even if Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was a roadside car fire, she was great is Nomadland, though. The camera is rarely far from her. Among ancient rock formations in a national park, she strikes an imposing figure. Mending a broken dish, shes heartbreaking. This isone of thoseits all in the face performances for which it would be hard to begrudge her another Oscar.

Most movies have suffered for being released in the past year, fragmented across drive-ins, limitedpandemictheatrical runs, VOD drops and streaming exile. A few, though, are the better for it, andthats whereNomadlandstands. It is quiet; weve grown to knowquieta little bettersince March.Were apart, and were together, and so are the nomads in the film.Zhaos storyhangs dignity on the shoulders of Americans gutted by profit-thirsty systems, whereweveoftenbeen taught to see shame.Loss of love, loss of job, loss of place you, like Fern, are more than these things, Nomadland tells us softly.

Especiallynow, when weve been sotreacherouslyleft in the cold bythe systems we were supposed to trust, its only the people we travel with who give us shelter.And sometimes, even for just a little bit, youve got to travel alone.

Grade: A-

Starring: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Swankie

Director:Chlo Zhao

Rated: R for some nudity

Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Watch: In theaters and available on Hulu on Friday

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Review: 'Nomadland' is a film for all of us left out in the cold - austin360