Fern is such a stunningly complex woman, someone who can be restless to a degree that feels self-sabotaging but is also incredibly warm and open with her people. We see this world through McDormand’s performance, one of the most subtle and refined of her career. Of course, this is impossible with a lesser actress than Frances McDormand anchoring every single scene.

The result is a film that earns its emotions, which come from genuine, honest empathy more than anything else. Fern doesn’t think she needs to be redeemed or saved, and Zhao doesn’t push buttons in an attempt to make us feel sorry for her either, while also somehow never underestimating the loneliness and sadness of her situation. There’s a much lesser version of the true story of “Nomadland,” based on the book by Jessica Bruder, that does all of this, melodramatizing Fern’s story into one of redemption. Here’s the problem that needs to be solved for the leading man or lady to be happy by the end of the movie or damned because of their bad behavior. I love everything about it.įilmmakers and artists in general have a tendency to judge their characters. It is a gorgeous film that’s alternately dreamlike in the way it captures the beauty of this country and grounded in its story about the kind of person we don’t usually see in movies. Fern is the unforgettable center of Chloé Zhao’s masterful “Nomadland,” a movie that finds poetry in the story of a seemingly average woman. In this nightmare state, Fern’s husband died, leaving her completely alone and, well, she likes the word “houseless” more than “homeless.” Hitting the road in search of work as a seasonal employee at an Amazon center, Fern starts living in her van, eventually getting involved with a group of modern nomads, people who sometimes form makeshift communities, but she inevitably ends up alone again, traversing the American landscape. In six months, its entire zip code was eliminated. When the gypsum plant there closed, the town of Empire quite literally closed with it. It seems like she was relatively happy in Empire, Nevada, one of those many American small towns built around industry. Fern ( Frances McDormand) is grieving a life that’s been ripped away from her.

Nomadland bruder