Nomadland Review By A Man Living In A Van

[visitorfromsomewhere]

[font=Roboto, Noto, sans-serif]I review the film Nomandland which appears to be the first substantial film on the topic of a person opting to live out of an automobile instead of traditional housing. Living out of a van myself, I appreciated seeing this thoughtful depiction of vanlife. However the film omits addressing the criminalization of homelessness and how that impacts nomads living out of autos. [/font]

[font=Roboto, Noto, sans-serif]The film also omits acknowledging the co-existing types of people who live out of non-recreational autos: people who live in them due to poverty and are in-effect homeless; people who are in poverty and yet opt to live out of autos by choice; and people in property also opting to live out of autos by choice. [/font]

[font=Roboto, Noto, sans-serif]In the video I also share my experience meeting Nomadland actress Frances McDormand in 2018. [/font]

[font=Roboto, Noto, sans-serif]I hope you enjoy my review of the film. How did you feel about the movie? [/font]

 

[B and C]

The movie wasn't about a homeless person, just a houseless person. You're mixing oranges and apples.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

The movie wasn't about a homeless person, just a houseless person.  You're mixing oranges and apples.

Your paraphrasing the quote from the movie and I address that very quote in my review.

The criminalization of homelessness (whether on the ground or in an auto) can impact people who voluntarily opt to live out of a non recreational auto.

 

[WanderingRose]

The movie wasn’t intended nor advertised to be a documentary on people who live in vehicles, and it’s unreasonable to critique it from that perspective.

That would be a different film.

 

[user 30781]

"" My story about asking Francis McDormand for help in 2018 and not getting help"" Fran didn't help you.........

Oh my. lol

This movie wasn't meant to be a documentary.

 

[crofter]

In your review you did not discuss hair and wardrobe. I thought the Fran character was made out to be more scruffy than any of the dwellers actually are. I know - not a documentary but still. Many dwellers are pretty put together when it comes to the hair and wardrobe, even on non shower days.
-crofter

 

[flying kurbmaster]

I don’t think this movie is about vandwelling, I think this movie tells the story of one women who’s life comes down on her after a series of setbacks that she is ill equipped to deal with. Accidentally ends up living in a van. She goes out in search of answers, resolution or to find herself. Instead she finds a group of individuals in similar predicaments. Disallusioned from an early age, Swept along by sociaties current she spends her life struggling with it, running from it, within it, in circles. Briefly she finds identy or sense of belonging first with the ugly factory town and her boyfriend, after he dies along with the town, amongst the van dwellers, then carries on her solo journey with no resolution. The large empty, baron, inhospitable, cold, lifeless landscapes blend well with her predicament. She is lonely, sad, depressed, as is the movie with no resolution, no happy ever after, no growth, no personal journey even if she was in a van driving places. The movie has nothing to do with living in a van other then it needed a setting, they could have used a sailboat then all live aboards would have critiqued it, the van is a prop nothing more. I get why it has been nominated for rewards because unlike most movies it does not attempt to make the audience feel good it delivers the facts and leaves you depressed which makes it different to other movies.

 

[desert_sailing]

I think your rating of " meh to good" was generous.

I've seen the movie 5x... Hoping to pick up on something I may have missed and I could only rate it "bleh to meh".

I think the title is completely misleading. It had very little to do with nomadism. It was a commentary on mental disease. Instead of pushing a shopping cart Fern had a van.
Disheveled and wandering aimlessly with a vacant look in her eye all the while wearing a hospital gown Fern is not typical of the majority of nomads. I'm surprised they didn't include a handful of cats for good measure... "Nomadland 2 Fern gets a pet"

After 5x viewing I have quite the opinion and don't want to take over your thread. LOL

I did have a big problem with "actors" portraying themselves but relating fake stories. No different than maybe interviewing Martha Stewart as Martha Stewart and she tells the camera she puts a spoonful of cow crap in her country style apple pies.

I saw various movie posters for nomadland.... I found it interesting that the non USA market posters showed Fern sitting outside her van in her hospital gown with her underwear air drying displayed prominently.

 

[user 30781]

in her hospital gown

I thought it was either a white sundress or a nightgown.  She does at some point wear a white sundress with some embroidery on it, looks like one I got in Mexico years ago.

This is what I got from the movie.  Her husband died and she stayed in the town because that was her last link to him.  Then the town goes under and she has nothing.  I've been in a similar situation, so this movie hit me kind of hard.  She doesn't want to go to family so she sets up her van for living and takes to the road.  She mostly wears his old jacket.  Maybe she's hoping to get a whiff of him left in the material. She's trimming her hair herself.  She looks scruffy, but she's depressed.  She probably doesn't give a damn what she looks like.  But then she finds Linda May and through her, more of the vandwellers and their society as it were.  Throughout the movie you can see that little by little she's coming up out of her self-imposed aloneness, but she's still not ready to go back to a regular life.  She's still working through her grief.  Vandwelling was tangential to the main part of the story.

I love the movie.

 

[WanderingRose]

I saw Fern as traumatized and a bit shell shocked from her life circumstances, not struggling with mental illness.

She was focused and working, getting where she needed to be, when she needed to be there and doing what she needed to do.

She was surviving and persevering in adverse circumstances, and that’s a good thing.

Nomadland was where Fern found herself and a sense of community, and the film gave some glimpse of that.

Her character appears to have cut her own hair out of financial necessity, and I thought the disheveled hair overdid it a bit, but overall her character was believable from what I have seen out there.

I identified with the jacket, as well. I just in recent months washed up and donated a Sherpa lined jacket of my late husbands that I continued to wear for dog walking and choring in cold weather the past 7 years.

 

[ichiban]

I haven't seen the movie but Bill Maher made a joke about it last Friday on Real Time. I don't want to participate in society. I don't want to contribute to a delinquent nation. Trust science not government. Too much?

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

The movie wasn’t intended nor advertised to be a documentary on people who live in vehicles, and it’s unreasonable to critique it from that perspective.

Nowhere in my review did I claim Nomadland is advertised as a documentary or should be.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

This movie wasn't meant to be a documentary.

At no point in my review did I say it was meant to be a documentary.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

In your review you did not discuss hair and wardrobe. I thought the Fran character was made out to be more scruffy than any of the dwellers actually are. I know - not a documentary but still. Many dwellers are pretty put together when it comes to the hair and wardrobe, even on non shower days.
-crofter

Good observation. [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]I've seen a mix of both in my travels. [/font]

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

I don’t think this movie is about vandwelling, I think this movie tells the story of one women who’s life comes down on her after a series of setbacks that she is ill equipped to deal with. Accidentally ends up living in a van. She goes out in search of answers, resolution or to find herself. Instead she finds a group of individuals in similar predicaments. Disallusioned from an early age, Swept along by sociaties current she spends her life struggling with it, running from it, within it, in circles. Briefly she finds identy or sense of belonging first with the ugly factory town and her boyfriend, after he dies along with the town, amongst the van dwellers, then carries on her solo journey with no resolution. The large empty, baron, inhospitable, cold, lifeless landscapes blend well with her predicament. She is lonely, sad, depressed, as is the movie with no resolution, no happy ever after, no growth, no personal journey even if she was in a van driving places. The movie has nothing to do with living in a van other then it needed a setting, they could have used a sailboat then all live aboards would have critiqued it, the van is a prop nothing more. I get why it has been nominated for rewards because unlike most movies it does not attempt to make the audience feel good it delivers the facts and leaves you depressed which makes it different to other movies.

Nice articulation of your perspective. I disagree with "The movie has nothing to do with living in a van." If that were the case they could have omitted all the real nomad scenes. It's a vanlife film for sure. "She is lonely, sad, depressed, as is the movie with no resolution" yet the film does not exactly make clear why she opts for the van instead of accepting her offers to get into housing. We don't see her with an RX for antidepressants.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

I think your rating of " meh to good" was generous.

Nice articulation of your perspective too. While we don't see her have an Rx for antidepressants there's no reason made clear why she rejects housing offers and opts to live in the van. Grief due to husband's death? Ok, but why does that mean she has to be in a van? To be a "not homeless, just houseless" trailblazer? How so? She's portrayed as new to the lifestyle and nothing indicates she's enthusiastic or an advocate about living that way. Maybe the audience is supposed to assign our own motivations? I dunno.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

I love the movie.

You too have articulated a great perspective. Maybe I'm just so literal that I needed to hear Fern say to her sister or the almost-love interest, "I'm having a hard time functioning so being in the van is manageable to me." She also seems to move around from AZ to NV to Walldrug so the timeline of it all was confusing to me - and that suggests she's not too attached to NV. Unless her going to AZ and Walldrug was part of her moving on from the death process.

 

[visitorfromsomewhere]

I identified with the jacket, as well.  I just in recent months washed up and donated a Sherpa lined jacket of my late husbands that I continued to wear for dog walking and choring in cold weather the past 7 years.

I am sorry for your loss.  :heart:

 

[rvwandering]

I deleted a post with references to the government. I also deleted a few because of bickering. Critique the movie but please don't criticize other members for their view on it.

 

[WanderingRose]

This is what confuses me, then, criticizing in your review of this film the omission of issues which are relevant to vandwelling/vehicle living in a large view, but which were not part of Fern’s story.

The film was about one woman, not intended nor advertised to attempt to depict the entire, inclusive nomad experience, as a documentary would do.

fwiw