The phenomenon of old people, travelling across America in camper vans in search of temporary work speaks in part of the weakness of the country's system for providing its citizens with economic security; but also of the more difficult problem of providing people with social and emotional security. 'Nomadland' was an acclaimed non-fiction book, which director Chloe Zhao has turned into a fictionalised film. The early section focuses mainly on the economic question, and is grim, plausible, but also leaves one wondwering wherether documentary, telling actual stories rather than an archeypical recreation of them, might not have been a better way of covering this material. The film is stronger when it focuses more on the particularities of Frances McDormand's character, which is also an archeytpical story, but one which could not be conveyed in facts and figures. The cinematography is nicely judged, conjuring the beauty but also the unforgiving harshness of the American west. The wider message, presented matter-of-factly and without polemic, is harshness of contemporary capitalism for those who fall through the net.
Review of Nomadland
