Nomadland brings us nearer to humanity at its best: TIFF Review

How can a movie make such a bleak, present reality so gripping that it restores your very faith in humanity? That’s the power of Nomadland.

It’s more than the best movie at the Toronto International Film Festival so far. Since its premiere this weekend, it’s become the frontrunner for the festival's People’s Choice Award and likely Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards.

The film is about Fern (Frances McDormand), a newcomer nomad who’s leaving her driven-out-of-business Nevada town and hitting the road solo. Along her epic journey, she learns about her own character as she does her relationship to the land she’s travelling.

McDormand, yes, is giving another dynamite performance as adventurer Fern. And it’s no surprise she thrives in this part when she’s already won two Oscars for playing warm, resilient women in the American heartland. This isn’t much of a departure, but Fern is also her most soulful character to date.

The real credit and star of this work is Chloé Zhao, who wore multiple hats in the production. She’s the director (in her third feature), writer, editor and a producer. That seems like a lot of responsibility, yet she stunningly succeeds at all tasks.

Her editing moves between the speed of time and slowness of change in Fern’s life. Zhao’s style of arid worlds both visually and thematically echo the work of Kelly Reichardt (this year’s First Cow) or Sergio Leone.

But her work here firmly resolves her as a masterful director with boldness and resolution. She’s also doing Marvel’s Eternals next year, but with Nomadland, Zhao is unquestionably now among Hollywood heavyweights.

She’s woven an incredible story with a message that everyone in North America should see: the value of your home comes how you build up others to make the world a better place.

Fern is on a quest: how can someone who doesn’t want to stay in one place find a sufficient, fulfilling home? We meet hundreds of characters in 100 minutes, but Fern is the only one who we really get to (and need to) spend enough time with.

The main supporting cast is made of real nomads featured in Jessica Bruder’s non-fiction book that inspired the screenplay. Linda May, Charlene Swankie and Bob Wells are terrific mentors and great personalities in their own right. Their own characters are strong enough as fiction as they are for real.

And that’s the balance that makes the film such a great drama. Everything Zhao has done captures the beauty of the unglamorous modern American west. The lonesome piano scoring, the snow and heat - even the horizons of faint sunrises and sunsets. How telling is that of the changes Fern faces?

Nomadland will help people of the world, for the first time, understand how America (a falsely prosperous country) stays patriotic and purposeful even when they have every reason not to be.

That’s a tall order in rundown America, especially “in these hard economic times.” But these people, Fern most of all, know and understand all times are hard. It’s not getting easier, so you better get used to it.

These are people who are in the most comfortable in an uncomfortable life. That’s where America is today - and that’s where it is even deeper now in the worsening pandemic. It makes the acceptance from all of the nomads so deep: “My sailboat is out in the middle of the desert.”

In one final side note, Fern’s (and McDormand’s) delivery of Sonnet 18 might be the best use of the text in any medium since Shakespeare wrote it 400 years ago. Every detail of Fern’s journey makes it more compelling.

I can’t phrase it plainer: this is the best movie I have seen this year. It is worth you making every attempt to see it as part of TIFF. If it sells out, the wait until its general release in theatres in December will be worth it.

The film shows us people who have somehow made peace with a country that doesn’t want to care for its citizens. That’s the barrenness of America today, but the goodness of this community comes from the most altruistic authenticity America has.

The majesty and likability of this vision, Chloé Zhao’s vision, is greater than I describe. It’s indescribably beautiful; more than mere words could attempt to match.

Nomadland

10 out of 10

1hr 47mins. Epic Drama Western.

Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao.

Starring Frances McDormand, Linda May, Charlene Swankie and Bob Wells.

Now streaming for rent on TIFF’s Bell Digital Cinema, with tickets available online here. General release in theatres December 4, 2020.