Nomadland...kinda

***CONTAINS SPOILERS, just a warning***

Having been a nomad living out of my van nine months, I was curious to see the new film Nomadland. I loved the book; it is one of the dozen or so books I keep with me in the van. I knew the movie was going to be a hybrid of fiction/non-fiction. Honestly, I struggled to wrap my head around what was a piece of investigative journalism (the book) that touched on the lives of real life nomads---(including Swankie, Linda May, and Bob Wells)---being turned into a fictional movie with real life nomads playing fictional versions of themselves.

Okay...caught your breath? Here we go.

Frances McDormand as Fern is incredible in this film, sort of a female Clint Eastwood living out of a van. She is flint, every so often you see some softness in the chinks, but she is one tough woman. Piss in the snowy tundra next to some unforgiving barbed wire? Fern doesn’t break a sweat. Listen to some Gothy drone on about their Morrissey tattoos? Fern takes it in stride. Bob Wells, and especially Swankie and Linda May are naturals. The latter tells a true story about a time she nearly committed suicide and, knowing the book, I was impressed.

This is a Hollywood film, and the moments you are aware it is a MOVIE are the weak moments: Hear the sad, plaintive movie soundtrack. See the “will they or won’t they” romantic tension. And, when Swankie says “I hope they throw rocks in a fire when I die.” I said to myself, they’re going to throw rocks in the fire when she dies. And they did. Well, at least Fern walks away from her potential boyfriend. She even refuses to adopt a snowbound mutt. Flint, that woman.

Hobos play piano. Attractive young vagabonds in floppy hats drink Coors Light next to fires. Fern noisily shits in a bucket. This is a great movie and I recommend it, it only scratches the surface of what it means to be a nomad, though. For one thing, you don’t automatically click with people and have friends. Vanlife is usually much more solitary, quite lonely at times. Of course, I have been a nomad during the pandemic; we didn’t even have a live RTR in ‘21, so maybe this year is different from 2018 when Nomadland was shot. This is a good film...it is excellent as a fictional character study, but they shouldn’t have called it Nomadland, maybe High Plains Drifter or something. My thing is that I love the book, I have read it half a dozen times---this is not Nomadland, but is still a great movie and gives a sort of Cliff Notes version of vanlife if you were curious.

Still curious? Well, follow this blog and stay tuned for my book The American Outback coming on April 3, 2021.

Izk