Nomadland

Released: September 11, 2020

Studio: Highwayman, Hear/Say Productions, Cor Cordium Productions, Searchlight Pictures

Genre: drama

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 3.70 Worldwide: 39.46

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: -- Worldwide: --

Directing: Chloé Zhao

Screenwriting: Chloé Zhao

Starring: Frances McDormand

Review:

Frances McDormand stars “as a widow who leaves her life in Nevada to travel around the United States in her van as a nomad” ^WK in this “docu-fictional hybrid” ^GN based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 non-fiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.

The movie captures a sad “a new phenomenon: America’s 60- and 70-something generation whose economic future was shattered by the 2008 crash. They are grey-haired middle-class strivers reduced to poverty who can’t afford to retire but can’t afford to work while maintaining a home. So they have become nomads, a new American tribe roaming the country in camper vans in which they sleep, looking for seasonal work.” ^GN

However, the movie also shows “that, along with the hardship and the heartache, there is also serenity in this way of life, even a kind of euphoria – without the burdens of a house and possessions you can have a glorious and very American freedom in the lost tradition of Emerson and Twain.” ^GN

The movie was written, produced, directed, and edited by Chloé Zhao. She became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director and the first Asian woman. She was also the first to be nominated in four categories in a single year.