Frances McDormand has a lot of Oscar buzz around her performance of Fern in Nomadland, currently streaming on Hulu.
Nomadland is an incredible film with an amazing performance by McDormand that focuses on the life of an individual who has lost everything after the passing of her husband and the stock market of 2008. Confined to living in her car, Fran takes on odd jobs across the country and sees the world in a different perspective. Instead of focusing on the negative this film presents a visually stunning story that highlights the existence of people who travel and live outside the expected norm.
Directed by Chloe Zhao, Nomadland presents a way of life that is often perceived as hard. This film does and also makes you realize that there is a lot to this world that we take for granted and how quickly it can be taken away. By making the audience question their perception of the world you are able to look through another lens that shows there is a lot of beauty in the world that we simply don’t get to see or experience as we spend a majority of our time working.
Based on the novel by Jessica Bruder, Nomadland is primarily about the life of Fern (Frances McDormand), a very strong individual who has fallen on hard times. Instead of giving up, she makes the most of her time by seeing what the world has to offer. Fern is able to travel the country, from temp job to temp job, makes amazing friends and see and experience a lot of the country that many Americans don’t. This is a heartbreaking but honest story that will make you think about life and what is meaningful to you.
Frances McDormand is absolutely astounding in this role. It is just so genuine and real that you forget it is a performance and feel that you are watching this life of Fern as it slowly presents itself to you. You cannot help but want the best for someone who has really fallen on hard times. But interestingly enough Fern doesn’t see it as hard times and that is what is remarkable about this performance is the courage and endless amount of perseverance to keep on going.
There has been a lot of hype around this film not only for the strong performance by Frances McDormand but also the tremendous work of female director Chloe Zhao. The last time a female director won an Oscar was Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker, in fact it is the only time a female won an Oscar for best director in its ninety-two year history. It is time the Academy awards more Oscars to female directors. This year there are two nominees, Chloe Zhao for Nomadland and Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman.
No matter the outcome of the Oscars next week, Nomadland is a film that will make you think about the brutalities of life and how tough it can be for some people when they have fallen on difficult times. Nomadland makes you realize life is all about perspective and how you look at things. The most remarkable thing about Nomadland is not the sadness and hardship, but how much beauty there is in the world.
Nomadland is currently available on Hulu.
