Title: Nomadland
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Chloé Zhao
Starring: Frances McDormand, Linda May, David Strathairn
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

What It Is: A middle-aged woman (McDormand) who has lost everything embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

What We Think: Chloé Zhao, best known for her debut feature Songs My Brothers Taught Me, brings us quite the atmospheric and captivating drama in her third feature film Nomadland. As the title suggests, the film follows a woman wandering through a land of nomads and eventually becoming one herself. The way this journey is presented is absolutely beautiful.

Frances McDormand gives one of the best performances of her career in this one. The best way I can put it is that, although she plays a broken character, her performance is unbreakable. It’s rare to see an actor become so pleasantly lost in a role and McDormand definitely does so. All the supporting cast do amazing jobs as well, with one character in particular, Swanky, stealing almost every scene she’s in.

Speaking of scene-stealers, the cinematography does just that on many occasions, sometimes better than the actors onscreen. There’s one shot near the beginning of the film that’s just one long take of McDormand’s Fern walking through the Nomad compound, observing all the different people doing different things, all while the sun is just peeking over the desert mountains. Absolutely stunning. Those types of scenes are aplenty in this film and the use of sunrises and sunsets are definitely symbolic to McDormand’s character and the themes the film presents. My take on it is that sunrises and sunsets mean beginnings and ends, although for nomads and people living in poverty they live day-to-day, so each sunrise is, to them, hopefully a new beginning.

The script is very well written (and surprisingly relevant) with some beautiful exchanges between characters (one of my favorites is between Fern and Swanky near the midpoint of the film) and is comfortably loose in its structure, which didn’t bother me one bit. The atmospheric nature of this film is ever so present throughout its runtime (there were times where I could feel the biting cold or diner ambiance). Really fantastic job from Chloé Zhao and being that this is the first film I’ve seen of hers, I most certainly will check out her other work.

Our Grade: A, Nomadland is a beautifully made film that transforms the depressing narrative of poverty into something personal, unique and quite special. Led by a powerhouse of a performance from Frances McDormand, this is one you must see come February.