A nomad; a person who does not stay long, a wanderer.
Nomadland is a beautiful journey following Fern (Frances McDommand), as she does just that, wanders through life. The wide landscape shots create a sense of vastness and nothingness, constructing a calm atmosphere from the beginning. This is quickly conflicted by the extreme close-ups, which create an intimate relationship between Fern and the audience, scenes of her urinating, sneezing, and lingering shots of her personal items. This builds a realistic and immersive connection to her life, a closeness to juxtapose the expansive shots.
The film follows Fern’s day-to-day life, things that seem like menial interactions, such as going to work, showing parts of her van to friends. Then the audience follows her journeys with travelling scenes, atmospheric music; adding an element of self-reflection that implies this is a film of Fern’s self-discovery. There are moments where as a viewer, we can feel the pain that Fern feels, simply from the conversations she has with fellow nomads such as Bob Wells’ group. She speaks to nomad friends about how she still wears her wedding ring even though her husband (Bo) has passed away. These moments feel truly heart-felt and genuine. The following scene of Fern wondering around an abandoned house in a pure white dress, perhaps hints at how Fern is living the life of a ghost, haunted by the past and the memories that reside within her mind.
Nomadland is very much an artistic film, the director of photography’s (Joshua James Richard) visual interpretations of the story are stunning throughout, creating beautiful pictures; every shot worthy of being called art. In particular the dry deserts, van park sunsets, and winding roads through the cold mountains. In addition to the beauty of these shots, the fact Fern and the other nomads, especially Swankie, are drawn to nature and animals implies they are all searching for a feeling of freedom, solitude, away from the pain. The repetition of how cancer affects the lives of many in the film highlights this. This perhaps signifies that a “normal” life is a form of cancer; by escaping this there is less pain.
Chloe Zhao (Director) has created a film of finding comfort after loss. There is a scene where Fern is surrounded by moths, which may also signify this connection to spirits beyond earthly realms, her past which is following her no matter how long the journey.
Nonetheless the film is not flawless; there is one scene in which I didn’t genuinely believe the interactions. Fern goes to visit her friend Dave who is working at a Zoo. In this scene the acting seemed exaggerated and out of character for Fern, however this could be to portray her new friendship with Dave, who she grows close to, perhaps he helps to bring her to be present, and he allows her to show her childish nature.
The friendship evolves through Fern’s journey; she goes to visit Dave later in the film, where she is brought into his family’s life and home, creating a sense of belonging and warmth, suggesting that maybe connections with other people really do make life better. This however then highlights Fern’s disconnection to anyone; she sits at the banisters, watching as Dave and his son play soft piano music; she is caged, only able to look at this kind of life from afar. She later sits alone at the dining room table, suggesting this is not the life to which she belongs.
As the film starts to come to a close, Fern leaves Dave’s family home, and the rain begins to pours as she drives to meet the sea; it is rough and raging, the first time we have seen nature depicted in a negative way. This may reflect, the struggle for Fern to find the kind of connection she has just witnessed now her husband has passed away. These crashing waves perhaps indicate the turmoil inside her, maybe Fern is finally realising she doesn’t know where she belongs and has spent “spent to much of [her] time remembering”.
The final scenes of the film see Fern return to empire, perhaps to put to rest these memories in order to allow herself to truly wander, previously Bob Wells gives her some advice saying “there’s no final goodbye”, but perhaps on the contrary this retreat back to Empire, is the final goodbye that will set her free.
7.5/10
Image: IMDB
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