Review: Nomadland
Never as candid as it promises, Nomadland tries to reach both narrative and documentary feel for the lives of the new nomads. Unfortunately, in incorporating Frances McDormand’s Fern into the nomads routines, makeshift homes, and headspaces, authenticity is lost. Monologues presented by real-life nomads are engaging, close-ups that present their backstories, thoughts, and motivations. By later placing Fern in these conversations with people like Bob Wells, those conversations transition into monologues again, creating a self-conscious scene that shatters any sense of documentary truth that director Chloé Zhao intends. Also lost in this combination of drama and depicting nomad communities is a subplot featuring Dave (David Strathairn). By utilizing Fern as a wandering citizen of struggle, it makes it difficult to burden her with more narrative strands. She can exist as a listening board for the testimonials of others or a fully-fleshed character, but not both.
No one questions the good intentions that Nomadland is meant to provide but between the overwhelming presence of the score and the whimsical shots of Fern expressing awe of places like Badlands National Park, the film takes on a fetishizing of the nomad lifestyle. Is this life one Fern has chosen of her own free will, or is it dictated by the larger machinations of late capitalism? Does Fern appreciate the take-it-or-leave-it nature of working in an Amazon warehouse? Or is it the only job available in Fernley, NV, that she can have in a recession? I don’t expect the film to turn into Norma Rae, though some inspection of Amazon’s part to play in this should be acknowledged. The nonfiction book that this film is based on, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, reconciles these features more neatly.
Visual flow sparklers against night skies, the merriment of sharing stories around a campfire provide something reassuring, but then there are also people living in vans with inoperable brain tumors. Regret and hardship are conveyed regularly, but there are never any hard-edged feelings. No one expresses anger at their situation or the prioritization of profits over human beings. Zhao keeps the tone light as everyone mostly remarks how lucky they are to be on the road. But Fern’s sister sums it up quite succinctly when she condescendingly reframes the nomads as “part of an American tradition. Nevermind the suffering that comes with it.
