{"id":23576,"date":"2021-03-08T21:21:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T11:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23576"},"modified":"2021-04-12T21:39:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T11:39:54","slug":"nomadland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23576","title":{"rendered":"Nomadland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tagfilm\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"nomadlandposter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Director:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Chloe Zhao
\nWriter:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Chloe Zhao, Jessica Bruder
\nCast:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Frances McDormand, David Strathairn<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hen the gypsum plant shut down in Empire, Nevada, it took the town with it.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 Once it became clear the jobs weren’t coming back to this tiny town built around industry, everything fell into ruin and within six months Empire’s zip code was discontinued.\u00a0 Not long after, Fern’s husband got sick and passed away.<\/p>\n

With nothing left to keep her in Empire, Fern decides to live out of her van and hit the road.\u00a0 She can always find seasonal work at the Amazon processing plant.\u00a0 But life on the road carries a steep learning curve.\u00a0 Make sure you have enough gas to reach the next town.\u00a0 Ensure access\u00a0to clean water.\u00a0 Find ways to keep warm in the unforgiving winter.<\/p>\n

Fern’s friend Linda invites to her a rendezvous of nomads in the Arizona desert, organized by Bob Wells (a genuine vandweller playing as himself).\u00a0 Although initially reluctant, Fern ultimately decides to go and that’s where she meets a tribe of likeminded people.\u00a0 She learns from others how to live on the road and\u00a0discovers there are a multitude of reasons why people became nomads.\u00a0 She befriends Swankie, a middle aged woman with a terminal illness.\u00a0 Rather than wasting away in a hospital, Swankie wants to see out her days travelling the country and seeing natural wonders.<\/p>\n

Fern has an amiable personality and makes a few friends at the rendezvous.\u00a0 They all have a saying.\u00a0 “See you down the road.”\u00a0 And with that, they part ways.<\/p>\n

\"nomadland-movie\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A lot of my awareness of the unique type of poverty that exists in America (historically the wealthiest country in human existence) is thanks to Washington Post\u00a0<\/em>journalist\u00a0Barbara Ehrenreich’s excellent book Nickel and Dimed<\/em>, which is dedicated to covering the lives of American’s working minimum wage jobs.\u00a0 In it, I learned a\u00a0quarter of America’s homeless are fully employed.\u00a0 That trailer parks, often synonymous with\u00a0housing for the poor in America, are becoming increasingly unaffordable for people earning the minimum wage.\u00a0 For people like Fern working jobs in the Amazon warehouses, earning $15,000 a year, life is a precarious balancing act and a single unexpected turn – serious illness, or in Fern’s case, an issue with her van – can have dire consequences.<\/p>\n

Throughout\u00a0Nomadland<\/em>, we see Fern put on a brave face and try to navigate appalling choices – like choosing\u00a0to spend her last few dollars on heating or food – and\u00a0find another paying gig in the next town over.\u00a0 Along the way she makes friends and acquaintances that slip in and out of her life on the road.\u00a0 An unexpected financial bind has her visiting her sister for help but she doesn’t stay for long.<\/p>\n

Nomadland<\/em> is\u00a0an incredible film and it warmly deserves the plaudits it has received.\u00a0 Director Chloe Zhao has done an incredible job writing and directing this character study\u00a0of displaced people.\u00a0 It is unflinching in showing the hardships faced by Fern and the nomads, but it never delves into poverty-porn.\u00a0 A lesser film would try to present Fern’s life as a problem to be solved, with good guys and bad guys along the way.\u00a0 Zhao’s portrayal of Fern and the people she meets are free of any such judgment.\u00a0 They are real, believable people with their own hopes, dreams, quirks and idiosyncrasies.\u00a0 Zhao\u00a0has infused the film with a poetic, dreamlike quality as she juxtaposes their lives against the striking backdrop of South Dakota’s Badlands Park and northern California landscape.<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0an acting masterclass from Frances McDormand who delivers a formidable career-best performance as Fern.\u00a0 Fern is an incredibly well rounded and complex character.\u00a0 She is strong, resilient and resourceful.\u00a0 She has a kindness that allows her to connect quickly with strangers.\u00a0 But the weariness of life and the loneliness of being a widow is also etched in her face and body language.\u00a0 McDormand communicates much of this through small, subtle gestures and expressions.<\/p>\n

Its sobering to watch this film and think how it reflects a version of reality that nearly forty million Americans face, living below the poverty line.\u00a0 It is estimated a further eight million were pulled into poverty last year because of the economic effects of Covid-19.\u00a0 Progress is slow.\u00a0 There are politicians who seem openly hostile to impoverished people.\u00a0 The more compassionate ones seem too few in number, stymied and unable to pass critical legislation to deliver improved wages and access to affordable healthcare.\u00a0\u00a0Nomadland<\/em> memorably and evocatively captures the lives of those left behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After losing everything in the Great Recession, a woman embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2960,2472],"class_list":["post-23576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-films","tag-chloe-zhao","tag-frances-mcdormand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23576"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23605,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23576\/revisions\/23605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}