Golden Globes 2021: Nomadland
I am obsessed with van life YouTube channels.
I stumbled on them somewhat accidentally three years ago because a girl who was a few years ahead of my in college started one. From there, the YouTube algorithm knew what to do.
To this day I follow a few couples who, until recently, were living nomadic lives out of the comfort of their own vans. Although they technically are living in cars, I can assure you it’s more glamorous than it sounds (or at least the facets they display on the internet are). Their vans are decorated like the most stylish, clean, and minimalistic apartments, complete with wood paneling and tiled backsplashes in their makeshift kitchens. Often they’re decked out with camping showers, composting toilets, and even sometimes small kitchen appliances.
It’s a common critique of these channels that they don’t show the realities of living out of a car and that they glamorize poverty, especially since most of these channels, and an even more significant percentage of the popular and successful ones, feature attractive, thin, white, heterosexual couples, presumably from wealthy backgrounds because they can afford to make the leap to this lifestyle. Of the channels I watch, most of them are now full time YouTubers, so they make their money documenting their lifestyle and posting about it online.
Nomadland, on the other hand, focuses on a completely different population that chooses to live life on the road. The film focuses on Fern (Frances McDormand), who’s life has been unraveled by the Great Recession. After losing her husband, her job, and her entire community and support system, she moves into a van out of necessity. She meets others in similar situations, and they encourage her to join them for an annual gathering in Quartzite, Arizona, where people living the nomadic lifestyle gather to share insight and important survival and safety skills needed to lead a life off grid. This gathering changes Fern’s life, and the rest of the film focuses on her roaming the American West, hopping from job to job and meeting up with friends along the way as she takes in many of the natural wonders of the world.
Of all the award season films I’ve written about so far this month, this is the only one I would describe as quietly beautiful. In terms of plot or action, not much happens, even though Fern’s life is forever changed by the people she meets on the road and the sights she takes in and experiences. So much of this film unfolds on Fern’s face, and Frances McDormand, while not always saying much, builds a full living character before the camera’s eye. You know how some actors love being an actor and some actors actually love acting? Frances McDormand definitely falls into the latter category. Honestly, I haven’t seen all the films in her category yet, but at the moment I’m rooting for her just because she gives great speeches. She’s so unglamorous, and I mean that in the best possible way, and is just effusive about her love for the craft of acting and for all her collaborators that make her work possible.
I was of course impressed with McDormand, and she carries the film gently on her shoulders, but I was also very moved by her cast mates. From the beginning of the film I was very impressed with the performances by the other nomads, they felt so lived in and natural in their roles. When I was doing my research for this post, I found out that the characters of Swankie, Linda May, and Bob, three of the nomads that had profound impacts on Fern’s journey, were all actual nomads playing fictionalized versions of themselves. I think that was such an excellent casting decision and the three of them did a really beautiful job handling the text and working with their cast members. I never would have guessed they weren’t professionals. Additionally, I think including them in the process helped to bring realism to the film and reduce any element of glamour that might be imposed on the nomadic lifestyle by the audience. Well, that and the scene where Fern shits in a bucket. That helped too.
Unlike Hillbilly Elegy, which shows some of the most harrowing aspects of American poverty, Nomadland draws attention to forgotten, downtrodden members of society without applying any air of condescension, pity, or overarching narrative of achievement. Fern is without a doubt smart, hard working, compassionate, and generous, but has no ambitions of grandeur or rising above her station. She just wants to lead a happy and free life. It’s almost anti-capitalist. You know what, I’m gonna go ahead and call it an anti-capitalist film. Yeah, I said it.
I would encourage you to watch Nomadland if you’ve watched any van life YouTube videos for a powerful anecdote to their squeaky clean portrayals. Also, whether you’ve watched those types of videos or not, you should watch Nomadland for McDormand’s moving performance, as well as for director Chloe Zhao’s masterful framing and visual storytelling. I’ve had the travel bug for a while now, but I’ve never been so enticed by South Dakota as I was when I saw it through Zhao’s camera. Nomadland was a moving portrait of aging, grief, freedom, and independence, and I am curious to see how it fares amongst more flashy award season contenders.