Nomadland

⭐9/10

This is another movie made specifically for me, and yet, despite literally winning the the highest award a movie can win, I didn't know it existed before I watched it. It's a very simple premise where an older woman has lost everything as her husband died, and the factory he worked at closed, leaving their town a ghost town, their property worthless and her sense of belonging gone. She has no money, no savings, no support. As a solution, she turns to van life, becoming an American nomad, travelling the west coast looking for gig work and scraping by. 

I liked that the premise forced her into this lifestyle. She wasn't looking to find herself or anything like that, she was just trying to stretch every penny she gets from the broken American social security system. This movie has been accused of glorifying poverty, but as someone who grew up as a rural poor, I think this is pretty faithful. It highlighted the difficulties but also the glimmers of beauty that exist across the spectrum of the human experience. 

But I don't think this movie is trying too hard to say anything, and I think it's better off that way. It's not preachy, but it forces you to think in unique ways and illicits an emotional response, or at least it did from me. You sometimes get frustrated with her choices, but understand them nonetheless. It made me think about what I would do in get situation, and yeah! This is what I'd do! Except I'd keep the dog of course. In fact I'm now hoping Jess dies so that I can experience this melancholic immersion of the American West, smoking a cigarette by a decades-old small-town monument, or drinking a Pepsi alone in a diner at 3am.

So yeah, this is the ultimate hipster watch, but gets bonus points for featuring nearly an entire geriatric cast, most of which were either not actors, or else amazing at giving candid performances. This is how people talk! They nailed it! But the movie has lots of On the Road or road trip stories like that. Amazing movie, just a touch short of a 10 for me.