A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Something about the blandly effusive response to Nomadland feels disappointing given its rather superficial account of individuals impacted by the US recession. [And] whereas nonfiction texts often draw on genre associations with truthfulness – despite the inevitable artifice of selective memory, stylised descriptions, personal bias, and editing – a hyper-polished filmic representation of individual hardship prompts additional questions about narrative verisimilitude and purpose. [Ultimately,] the distracting vistas, combined with the fact that Fern and her contemporaries are all essentially good-humoured, non-threatening, and uncomplaining, make us almost forget that they are seeking alternative ways to live because their government has left them lacking homes, healthcare, or other forms of social safety, and that this could very reasonably inspire resentment.
— Esmé Hogeveen (Another Gaze)
People have said that the depiction of the Amazon warehouse is soft, but it still probably looks pretty awful to the film's target audience of Academy Award voters.
