Combining elements of The Grapes of Wrath and No Country For Old Men in this migrant drama, Chloe Zhao paints a subtle portrait of a resilient woman determined to survive despite devastating loss. Widowed, 61-year-old Fern (Frances McDormand) lost everything in 2008’s financial collapse: her home and her job in now-deserted Empire, Nevada.
So she sets out alone across the American West in a ramshackle Ford Econoline van, joining a caravan of modern-day nomads, squatting in RV parks. Cryptic, soft-spoken Fern is fiercely defiant when asked if she’s homeless: “I’m houseless, not homeless. My home is my van.” Eschewing pity, she is smart, courageous, and self-reliant, using a plastic bucket as a portable toilet.
Adapted as a non-judgmental character study from Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, Zhao collaborates with cinematographer/production designer Joshua James Richards, to authentically profile - with meandering realism -not only Fern but others who are stoically facing tremendous challenges.
Rugged, real-life nomads Linda May and Charlene Swankie guide Fern to YouTube guru Bob Wells, who reveals the perilous practicalities of van-living. Fern also forms a tenuous relationship with a fellow traveler (David Strathairn).
Chloe Zhao’s Songs My Brother Taught Me and The Rider are also glimpses of contemporary America from the perspective of a woman born in China and raised in England. Filming in seven states during four months, Frances McDormand actually harvested beets and packaged Amazon orders with the Camper Force program. As millions more Americans face poverty and food banks are overextended, it’s a sad fact that- for many - a stable existence has become unaffordable. Highly recommended.