Nomadland

Chloé Zhao’s film comes from Jessica Bruder’s 2017 reported book Nomadland; several of its real nomads appear under their own names: Linda May, Swankie, Bob Wells. Fern’s journey is a run of goodbyes with no rising conflict, and the film repeats one question instead of a plot: why, when a room is offered, does she not stay. The documentary texture is less raw than it looks. The most documentary-seeming thread, Swankie driving to Alaska with a terminal illness, is the invented one; she has said the hardest part was acting sick and dying, since her health at 78 was better than 16 years earlier, when she got new knees. The warehouse scenes were shot in a working Amazon fulfilment centre; cinematographer Joshua James Richards says access came from a letter Frances McDormand wrote the company, and she really taped boxes there. It took Venice’s Golden Lion and Toronto’s People’s Choice Award, and won Oscars for best picture, directing and actress in a leading role, with further nominations in adapted screenplay, cinematography and editing. Zhao was a nominee four times for one film: producer, director, writer, editor. A good fit if you will sit through Fern’s shifts, the conveyor belt and the campground cleaning. Not for anyone waiting for Fern to settle; the film withholds that decision.