I finally watched Nomadland. It’s been out since February but I just now got it at the Redbox.

Nomadland is a movie based on the non-fiction book of the same title by journalist, Jessica Bruder. Bruder featured several people living a nomad lifestyle doing different things in her book. The common denominator was that they were forced out of homes and into vans and old RVs because of hard economics. They couldn’t afford to live in a house any longer. In the movie, McDormond’s character, Fern gets laid off from work after her husband dies, and she fills all the roles described in the book.

She joins Amazon’s Camperforce for a while. She works as a campground host, on the sugar beet harvest in Nebraska, and at Wall Drug in South Dakota. They all feature lots of low skilled, low pay, hard work. She lives in an old van that she refitted into living quarters. She makes friends with other nomads and learns the ins and outs of living on the road from them including a cool guy named Bob Wells. Wells plays himself in the movie.

There were a couple of other people who played themselves in the movie.

I think the movie is about the dignity and spirit of the people who live the lifestyle. Fern always does the best job she can no matter how crappy the work is. She takes it seriously and demands respect.

This isn’t a movie where everything is tied up in a bow at the end.

I recommend the film highly. Get it at the Red Box or stream it on Hulu. Get the book at the library.