Oscar Catchup: Nomadland
Photo from Fox Serachlight
Nomadland is the movie getting the biggest buzz at the Oscars this year. It secured the Producer’s Guild of America award for Outstanding Motion Picture, an award which has dictated the winner of Best Picture at the Oscars 15/20 times in the past 20 years, with the most recent exception being Parasite’s win at the 2020 Oscars last year. While upsets do happen, it seems that this year’s PGA winner will indeed be the predictor of the Best Picture Oscar.
I finally caught up with Nomadland after waiting months for it to be wildly available. Lots of hype was built around Chloé Zhao’s third feature when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September of 2020, even winning the Golden Lion, the festival’s most prestigious award. Thankfully, Nomadland was worth the wait and did not disappoint.
Based on the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder, the film follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as she travels the country as a nomad after losing everything, including her husband, in the recession of 2008. If you’re looking for a plot-heavy movie, this isn’t for you. Nomadland is more of an experience than a conventional story. We follow Fern as she travels aimlessly across the country, and we have no clear idea of where she’s going next--because Fern herself doesn’t either. Zhao makes the excellent decision to use real nomads and vandwellers as her supporting cast, with the only actors being McDormand and David Strathairn (who plays a soft, regretful father named Dave). The sweeping fields and mountains, made even more vibrant by cinematographer Joshua James Richards, are side characters in and of themselves, standing as silent companions of Fern’s everywhere she goes.
It’s a stunningly crafted film, both technically and emotionally, but the driving force of the film is Fern’s relationships with these transient friends, who she amazingly runs into multiple times on the vandweller circuit over the course of the year. It’s a joy to watch Fern’s emotional journey as well as her physical one; she begins as a distant, grieving widow and eventually warms to her fellow vandwellers, and becomes a true vandweller herself. David Strathairn, the only other professional actor in the film, provides an excellent foil to Fern with his character Dave. He’s quiet, earnest, and genuine, and wants nothing more than to offer his friendship and support to Fern, simply because he believes she’s “a good person”. His emotional journey and willingness to face his own mistakes and grief inspires Fern to eventually face hers, even when offered a comfortable and easy way out of doing so.
There is a stunning conversation towards the end of the film between McDormand and head vandweller Bob Wells about why he was drawn to this lifestyle and how he was able to move forward after his own personal tragedy. It’s the emotional climax of the film and unexpectedly moved me to full-on tears. It’s the last real exchange between characters in the film and is a poignant note to end on. Contrary to what the non-vandwellers in the film may believe, vandwellers aren’t running away from society or the real world--they’re running towards a sense of purpose and the need to make the world a better place in their own, small way.
Nomadland is more than the feel-good wanderlust movie it appears to be on its surface. It’s a story about mourning, remembering, and moving forward. We can try to ignore our grief and fear, but sometimes the only true way to move forward is to take the time to look back.