From NYFF: ‘Nomadland’ is a Worthy Centerpiece Selection

In “Nomadland,” writer-director-editor Chloé Zhao paints a riveting character study of a woman who leaves her job at an Amazon packing plant to live out of her van as a nomad in the American West. In just her third film, Zhao tackles bold themes as she delivers a visually stunning and carefully written film that illuminates the lives disenfranchised by a society which too often prioritizes capitalistic wealth over human wellbeing.

Zhao's film is reminiscent of Kelly Reichardt’s “Wendy and Lucy” — both films feature a woman forgotten by corporate America struggling to find belonging. But in “Nomadland,” Fern (Frances McDormand) is given multiple opportunities to live with mainstream society. Zhao makes it a point to highlight this throughout the film — be it through friends who seek her whereabouts, a sister who offers her an abode, or a lover who offers to settle down with her. Fern isn’t only left out by a society that has forced her to work so long for so little. She has rejected it.

Early in the film, a child asks Fern if she is homeless. Fern smiles and responds, “No, I’m not homeless. I’m just houseless. Not the same thing, is it?”

For Fern, home is not a physical location — it's life in the plains, on the road, as a nomad. Even if this way of life is removed from society’s common pleasures, like cinemas or restaurants, it gives her a sense of belonging that the middle-class suburban dream simply can’t offer. It’s not for a lack of reaching out that Fern feels disenfranchised: It’s the snide contempt that hides behind the weak smiles of the comfortable Chardonnay-sipping suburban class. It’s a concept that Zhao spoon-feeds to the audience; perhaps she thought it would be a difficult one to grasp, or perhaps it only appears obvious in hindsight because of the effectiveness of Zhao's visual storytelling.

With cinematographer Joshua James Richards behind the camera, the outdoors are filmed with breathtaking wide-angle landscape shots, with the camera sometimes tracking around Fern to reveal a sunrise just as it bursts over a mountain range. Suburbia lacks all sense of that dynamism and mystique; Richards drains the color out of those scenes, making them feel comparatively mundane and depersonalizing. While the wide shots of the great plains are visually striking, those same wide-angles in an empty house feel lonely and uncomfortable. In “Nomadland,” it’s more than understandable why Fern would choose life as a nomad.

Opposite two-time Academy Award winning actress and perpetual Coen brothers favorite Frances McDormand is David Strathairn, who won Best Actor in George Clooney’s “Good Night, And Good Luck.” McDormand delivers a powerful performance; it’s not the showiest, relying on a subdued energy to capture the range of subtleties in the human experience, from loneliness to relief from mere companionship. What’s remarkable is that Zhao decided to fill the rest of the cast with real nomads. It lends a candor and earnest understanding to this way of life that makes “Nomadland” feel refreshingly honest.

Some films about society’s outsiders merely depict them on screen: They point at their existence from the inside of society looking out. Todd Phillips’ “Joker” is a perfect example of this problem. It points to the existence of outsiders in society, and then proceeds to make the groundbreaking, earth-shattering epiphany that those outsiders are treated unfairly. Eureka! What remarkable insight into the human condition! “Joker” was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards.

This can also be applied to many Hollywood-produced films about minority communities. “Crazy Rich Asians,” directed by Jon Chu, carried the enormous responsibility of being the first Hollywood film with a majority-Asian cast. However, the film doesn’t say much at all about Asian life or culture. In fact, it celebrates the very demographic of people in South East Asia responsible for corrupting governments and sparking egregious inequality in the region. It’s sickening that such a hollow, insipid film was meant to stand for anything. “Crazy Rich Asians” is a symptom of that same Hollywood trend that produced “Joker”: It’s like Chu pointed off in the distance and notified the world of the existence of Asians. Congratulations.

In contrast, “Nomadland” is so special because it breaks the blind pandering and virtue-signaling that is so frustrating in corporate Hollywood. And because it treats its subject matter with such respect and patience, it actually has the chance to win over casual viewers — from the attention and nuance put into Fern's character to a non-professional, authentic cast of real nomads.

However, if Zhao’s goal was to appeal to that casual demographic, she might run into a pacing conundrum. Time does not run uniformly in “Nomadland,” and Zhao often skips months at a time in a quick montage as Fern jumps from one job to another. It creates the effect that jobs in this economy are just a part of society’s capitalist machinations, and participating in such a system makes one feel like a replaceable cog. However, the nonlinear depiction of time can also be frustrating for some audiences; it creates the effect of a sometimes static film that dwells too long on the minutia of details and not on a broader, conventional story. But while Fern’s character doesn’t discernibly change from the film’s start to its end, our understanding of her does. Zhao’s quest for audiences to understand the motivations and inner workings of a character removed from society's concepts of success are a frank success in storytelling.

It’s ironic, perhaps, that Zhao’s next film is one in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — the epitome of the capital-churning machine that is Hollywood. Perhaps Zhao’s Marvel detour is more a testament to her immense talent as a storyteller — that she is able to deliver on such a diverse range of projects. But regardless of whether it’s a future in big-budget filmmaking or more films like “Nomadland,” it’s tantalizing to imagine what could be in store in Zhao’s future.

—Staff writer Lanz Aaron G. Tan can be reached at lanzaaron.tan@thecrimson.com and on twitter @LanzAaronGTan1.