Nomadland is a rare mainstream film about poverty. We meet traveling (mostly) white people and the supportive communities, simultaneously temporary and recurrent, that they build. Most, like Fern (Frances McDormand), are dealing with the devastation following the Great Recession. Slow and painful, it is full of desert landscapes and mud and rocks. Fern occasionally takes up very tough temporary low-wage jobs – like Christmas rush at Amazon – but where are the Black or Brown workers? I was struck hard by the profound aloneness which some of the characters sought and was puzzled about the absence of abusive men in these landscapes.
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