Nomadland (2020)

Before the next Academy Awards, I thought I'd catch up on previous winners and nominees. I had been putting this Best Picture off because some people made it sound depressing. Then I remembered that the same was true of No Country for Old Men, which I turned out to like just fine. Besides, after Johnny Got His Gun, how painful could it be for me to watch?

In 2011, the closing of a factory spells the emptying of its tiny Nevada town. Sixty-something widow Fern (Frances McDormand) stays as long as she can but then decides to live out of a van, seeing the countryside and taking odd jobs. She meets many other nomads in a mutually supportive community, including Dave (David Strathairn), who clearly has a crush on her, but commitment to anything other than preserving her husband's memory is far from her mind.

The title comes from Jessica Bruder's nonfiction book, but the story is only somewhat true. Fern doesn't exist, for example. Nevertheless, the fact that most of the actors used their real first or last names tipped me off that they were real nomads. I won't look into how closely they hew to reality.

There's certainly a commitment to realism. The dialog isn't very quotable, because it sounds like what people would actually say without a script. Moreover, McDormand did such method acting that multiple nomads and affiliates thereof mistook her for one of them. It helps that she doesn't exactly look like a typical movie star. I'd barely recognize her myself.

Don't let the R rating scare you. Mainly, there are a handful of swears, plus one scene of Fern bathing in a river. It's not played for fanservice. No violence transpires, and deaths by disease are only discussed, not shown.

Fern's lifestyle is certainly difficult and insecure, as she learns partly the hard way. But it's only superficially like the urban homelessness I encounter regularly. She never resorts to begging or worse. She receives more than one offer for living in a building, including from her sister (Melissa Smith), but Fern chooses otherwise. She gets enough companionship from fellow nomads, and the Rocky Mountain States have no shortage of sights to behold. Depressing nothing; I almost envy her.

Part of what really staves off the gloom, even in dwelling on loss, is how nice every character is. I wouldn't call any of them a jerk. Fern may come closest for her tendency to forget manners, but not in a mean way.

You might think from my sparing description that this drama would have trouble sustaining interest for 108 minutes. Yet I was never bored. I got antsy only toward the end, when what I thought would be a concluding scene wasn't.

So far, I agree with the Academy in putting Nomadland in first place for the year. I doubt any of the rest will supplant it.