Nomadland (2020) is a film made for those who feel stuck in life. It won’t satiate your appetite for closure. It won’t make you throw out all your possessions and live the nomadic life-style (probably not). But, it will make those who feel they are just floating around, tethered to a past, feel noticed. Dealing with loss in life is a universal experience and everyone’s handle on it is different. Fern deals with it by packing her limited possessions in her van and calling it home, as she hits the American road in search of nothing in particular.

The cold tint, the soft piano melodies, and the isolating tracking shots of Nomadland are characters of their own in the film. They are the breath of the experience and keep it on track. The engine of the film is the conversations and life stories of the actual nomads on the journey with Fern. The director, Chloe Zhao, allows the “actors” (actual nomads) to dive into their experience and the common theme among all of them is deprivation. Their lives are interesting and occasionally passionate, but there is loss in their voice. The characters come and go as Fern does the same in their own lives. Bob Wells, a pioneer and visionary in the nomadic lifestyle, had a monologue about his deceased son that knocks you out with an emotional punch. 

“I could honor him by serving people. It gives me a reason to go through the day. Some days that’s all I’ve got”

Don’t do it.

How to get respect in the world.