Nomadland

Following on from its success at the Oscars, where it won three prizes including Best Picture, Nomadland has finally got a release in the U.K.

The film stars Frances McDormand as Fern, a fictional widow in her sixties who finds a new life on the road as a nomad, moving around the American West finding work in her van, after she loses her job and home as a result of the US Gypsum plant in Empire, Nevada shutting down in 2011.

Nomadland depicts a year in the life of a van-dweller, with Fern’s seasonal job at Amazon over the Christmas holidays serving as bookends of the story.

The film is rather slow and there’s not much of a plot, so it won’t appeal to everybody, but there’s a lot to like about it – Chloe Zhao, who became the second female Best Director Oscar winner recently, has created a moving, intimate and deeply human portrait of nomadic life and you can’t help but get invested in Fern and her fellow ageing nomads.

Zhao...