Nomadland is very much in the tradition of films made about America directed by directors from elsewhere: Ernst Lubitsch, F.W. Murnau, Charles Chaplin, Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, Douglas Sirk, Jean Renoir, Michelangleo Antonioni, Roman Polanski, etc. Zhao's film (she is Chinese) is effectively low-key and austere, helped immensely by the minimalist expressiveness of actress Frances McDormand. McDormand plays Fern, a woman whose husband and the town they lived in have died and she is on her own, driving from one state to another while living in her van and working temporary and seasonal jobs at Amazon and camps where she stays. She has offers to stay with her sister and even a man she has met in her travels but doesn't seem to want to give up her independence, in spite of the hardships. She makes friends along the way who share her sentiments and say things like "I didn't want my sailboat to be in my driveway when I died."
Much of this episodic film takes place at sunrises and sunsets, suggesting that this nomad way of life is both a beginning and an ending. The landscapes of America are captured beautifully by Zhao and cinematographer Joshua James Richards -- who is also the production designer -- contrasting the beauty of the landscape in the deserts and rocks of America with the inequality and difficulties of some of its residents.
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