Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao reached a career peak before the age of 40 in winning a best director Oscar for this 2020 film, all while being the first woman of color to do so. Possessing a forte for portraits of rural-American life often distant from the bright lights of Hollywood glamour, Zhao marries the sensibilities of her eastern roots with the western world she grew up and currently resides. Nomadland (2020) is an expression of such and the film can be dissected in many ways: a drama/western according to Google, a character study as well as a road movie by nature of its story and main character Fern (played by the legend Frances McDormand). Not to mention a gorgeous cinematic showcase of vast American landscapes as if channeling the films of Terrence Malik.
But to me, more than anything this movie is an exploration of what we call “home”. Because for Fern, she’s lost her home. Her husband having passed years ago, she continued to live in their old house in Empire, Nevada while working at the local factory. The movie begins in 2011 when that factory is shut down and all the residents are forced to abandon their homes for pastures more financially prosperous. At this point, Fern decided to take the road and never settle down again. She, like other nomads she meets throughout the movie, wanders from place to place, job to job. No sense of stasis or home.
Soon enough, we realize that Fern’s van, “Vanguard”, is also a main character in this film. For this special attachment she shares with something so material reveals to be deeply human and vulnerable. The van she travels long and far in is the closest she has to call “home” throughout the duration of this film. This is just one of many ways director Zhao examines the powerful attachments we as humans form with material, places and memories.
The opening of the movie finds Fern moving her former belongings into storage before leaving Empire to embark on her journey. These are relics of a life she once held so dear as Fern latches onto her husband’s old fishing box, as well as set of plates passed down to her by her father. The moment after it’s a blue work coat she hugs close to her face, one can guess that it belonged to her husband as well. Later in the film, we see her frustration and sadness when a fellow nomad, Dave, accidentally breaks that set of plates while trying to help Fern reorganize her van. Then the very next scene we see Fern delicately piece the fractured plates back together with glue.
Vanguard becomes a symbol and companion for her perpetual relocation as they travel from one place to another while meeting fellow nomads on the way. If anything, Vanguard becomes the sole witness to her new life. Fern cooks, sleeps and shares quiet, reflective moments with Vanguard throughout the film, almost as if they are kin. In the second half of the story we see Vanguard break down and Fern is confronted with possibly of cutting her losses and getting a new vehicle instead of the costly repairs. She immediately rejects this proposition and instead calls her sister to barrow the cash needed for repairs.
It’s a stark picture as we see Fern and her sister don't seem to share much of a relationship at all. In the few scenes they share together they’re often at odds, Fern defiant and defensive about her new lifestyle which her sister cannot seem to fully accept or comprehend. Rather, Fern seems more connected with Vanguard in this movie than her actual blood. Adamantly refusing to abandon her vehicle because as she states: “I live in there, it’s my home”.
If the entire film felt like some sort of spiritual meditation on grief and longing, then the finals scenes truly bring the story full circle as Fern and Vanguard return to Empire where their journey began. Here, Fern decides to discard all her former belongings that she put into storage at the beginning of the movie. Then we see her revisit the factory she once work at as well as the home she once shared with her husband. Walking inside for possibly the last time, embracing all the emotions in-between the moments before what feels like a goodbye. “I maybe spent too much of my life, just remembering” she admits. It becomes fully apparent by the end of the film that so much of this story is about letting go. Fern and Vanguard are then back on the road, onward towards a new chapter and maybe finally, a new search for home.
