Searchlight Pictures original film Nomadland was made available on Hulu last Friday February 19, 2021.
🎥🚛#NMDLND would give Frances McDormand her third best actress Oscar.
rottentomatoes: 95%
metacritic: 94
imdb: 7.7
golden globes: 2 wins
SAG awards: 1 nomination
Fern
Fern lives in her van outside of Quartzite, Arizona.
Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
1 nomination: 2021
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
1 nomination: 2021
“Okay, here’s what I owe ya.”
“♪♪ What Child is this ♪♪ Who laid to rest ♪♪ On Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet… ♪♪ While shepherds watch are keeping? ♪♪” — Fern
“I’m in the Amazon CamperForce list. Try M-C-D. Hmm…” — Fern
“He’s an oddball, right? Ed? He’s an oddball. That’s not even long enough. Now, okay… some plastic… …Linda May. And I’m Fern. No.” — Fern
“So, the guy that had the van before, he just had a mattress in the back, but I didn’t wanna keep it that way. I wanted to build the bed up so I could have storage underneath. And I got these storage drawers, one set in the front so I could get in them from the inside, and then another on the outside. You see that? This is my husband’s old fishing box. I put this little latch on it, and then when I open it, the stopper holds it and creates more counterspace. And then I keep my really nice stuff inside. My dishes that my dad gave me. He collected these, Linda May, from yard sales, and when I graduated from high school, he gave me the whole set. Isn’t that great? Yeah, it’s called Autumn Leaf. I don’t have that many pieces with me, but you know. Vanguard. She is. Mmm.” — Fern
“Hey. Hey. Hey, what are you doing? Hey, Brandy. Hi, kids. I’m good. Good. Yeah, I cut it. Thank you. Yeah, I am. Uh, yeah. Great money. Yeah. I’m parked over at the Desert Rose R. V. Park. How’s your mom? Please tell her I miss her, too. Thanks. Don’t worry about me. I’ll let you know. I promise. See you, Aubrey. Hey. Hi. You still the smartest kid in school? Mmm-hmm. You remember anything that we worked on when I tutored ya? That’s really good. No, I’m not homeless. I’m just houseless. Not the same thing, right? Don’t worry about me. I’m okay.” — Fern
“Bob Wells looks just like Santa Claus. What’s RTR stand for? No, I don’t think I’m gonna go.” — Fern
“Yeah, you, too, Doug. Is he dead? Oh. But they didn’t take the dog? Uh… no. No. Yeah. I just finished Amazon yesterday. Well, there is a discount if I don’t use the electric and dump, ’cause I just have my van, you know? Yeah, but I wanted to get a job around here first. Mmm. Mmm-hmm. Bye, Patty.” — Fern
“My husband worked at the USG mine in Empire and I worked in human resources there for a few years. That was my last full-time job. I did a lot of part-time jobs. I cashiered at the Empire Store. I was a substitute teacher at the school for five years… yeah, about a year ago. Now? I don’t think I can get by on the benefits, and, um… I need work. I like work.” — Fern
“Hi. Hi, I’m Fern. Um, I asked someone, they said I could park here overnight. Yeah, I know. I can tell. Really cold. I’m gonna be good. Mmm.” — Fern
“Linda? Linda? Thank you. What’s that? Looks good. Just tell me when? You good? More? Oh! She likes the red peppers. Cilantro?” — Fern
“Hey, Linda. No, I’m just gonna take a little walk. Be back soon. Hey. Good morning… Bob.” — Fern
“Stop being so quiet. Hi, guys.” — Fern
“Got these for you. Yeah. Oh. These yours? Doesn’t happen to me. Trade you for a potholder. I make ’em. No. Something different. Yeah. Uh-uh-uh. It’s going home with me. See ya. Yep.” — Fern
“Seems like the work is not gonna be horrible. Do you take resumes? Um… I’ll leave it with you, just in case. Go online? Oh, okay. Did you feel it? You guys know how much money is sitting here? It’s like, they’re, uh, dinosaurs. Nope. Watch out, watch out. Watch the steps. Whoa. Whoa. It’s like a disco. Washer and dryer. Oh, my gosh. You’re kidding. Oh, man. Okay, ladies, where are we going?” — Fern
Linda May
“Three-point contact. So you don’t fall down the stairs.”
“This is Carl. This is Angela. Doug. Ryan. Teresa. Karie. And your good ol’ friend… this is my friend Fern. Hi, everybody. I like that. Ah! Yes?”
“Very smart. I thought so. What is this? Ah… oh! They are beautiful. What did you name your van? Oh, that is very strong. Oh, we just drove by there today.”
“Before I moved into the Squeeze Inn, I was out looking for work and putting in applications… 2008, and it was just tough. And I got to a really, really low point. And I thought about suicide, and I decided I was gonna a bottle of booze, turn on the propane stove… and I was gonna drink that booze until I passed out. And if I woke up… I was gonna light a cigarette, and I was gonna blow us all up. And I looked at my two sweet little trusting dogs, my Cocker Spaniel and my little Toy Poodle, and I just couldn’t do that to them. And I thought, well, I can’t do that to me, either. So, I was getting close to 62 and I went online to look at my social security benefit. It said $550. Fern, I had worked my whole life. I’d worked since I was 12 years old, raised two daughters. I couldn’t believe it. So I’m online, and I find Bob Wells Cheap RV Living. I could live in an RV, travel and not have to work for the rest of my life.”
“Doesn’t he? Everybody says that. Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. It is in Quartzite, Arizona, out in the middle of the desert, on BLM land. You should come. I’m gonna make you a map. Oh, I hope you come. I’m gonna make you a map anyway.”
“Hey. Shh. So glad you came. That’s Bob Wells. Sit here. Keep the chair. No, I’m… I’m a carnivore. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, though.”
“Hey, Fern. Come over and join us. Okay.”
“Uh-oh, uh-oh, it’s sliding. Whoa! Oh, my gosh. Oh, the lighting is beautiful. Hawaii. Well, yeah. Well, there’s water between here and there. This is a magic bus. We could go to Hawaii.”
Aubrey
“Hey, girls. It’s Mrs. M. Fern. Say hi to Mrs. M. How are you? Good. It’s nice to see you. It’s been a while. How’ve you been? Good. You look good. Thanks. You cut your hair. I like it. I like it a lot. Are you working at Amazon again? You like it? Are you still doing the van thing? Didn’t we, girls? She’s wonderful. She misses you a lot. I will. I will. But really, Fern, if you need a place to stay, you can come over and stay with us. We’re worried about you. Okay. Okay. Bye.”
Makenzie
“Oh, hi, Fern. Hi. Hey. Yeah, kinda. Uh… yes. Um… ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And all of our yesterday have lighted fools. The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.’ Thank you. Thank you. Um… my mom says that you’re homeless. Is that true? No. Okay.”
Bob Wells
“The RTR is a bootcamp for beginner nomads. So, that’s what the RTR is. It is a support system for people who need help now.”
“And the odd thing is that we… we not only accept the tyranny of the dollar, the tyranny of the marketplace, we embrace it. We gladly throw the yoke of the tyranny of the dollar on and live by it our whole lives. I think of an analogy as workhorse. The workhorse that’s is willing to work itself to death and then be put out to pasture. And that’s what happen to so many of us. If society was throwing us away and sending us, the workhorse, out to the pasture, we workhorses had to gather together and take care of each other. And that’s what it’s all about. The way I see it is the Titanic is sinking and economic times are changing. And so my goal is to get the lifeboats out and get so many people into the lifeboats as I can.”
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through, the loss of your husband, and the loss of your whole town, and friends, and village, and that kind of loss is never easy. And I wish I had an easy answer for you. But I think you’ve come to the right place to find an answer. I think that… I think connecting to nature and to a real true community and tribe, will make all the difference for you. I hope so.”
“Morning. One of the questions that I get all the time is, ‘Bob, I have to live in the city. I’d like to be out here, but I can’t.’ ‘How can I avoic the famous knock on the door?’ So, I’ve developed what I call the Ten Commandments of Stealth Parking.”
Swankie
“Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s plenty. Mac ‘n’ cheese. No! No!”
“It scared me. Oh, no. Let’s not go to the East Coast. There’s no place big enough over there to park something this size. Okay. Hawaii.”
Dave
“Yeah. We got plenty. Jump and shout. This is vegan. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Another carnivore? Okay.”
“She always has some nice appliances. Yeah. There’s a black hole in every van. Specially mine. One time I had seven of these can openers.”
“How many vegans we got here? Vegan. She’s a carnivore. No! No, no.”
“She always has some nice appliances. Here, you should take this one. That one’s kind of funky. Yeah. There’s a black hole in every van. Specially mine. One time I had seven of these can openers. Okay, sure. Wow. What is this? Crochet? Nice. Wow, that is nice. Wow. Okay. Thank you.”
Bryce
“I’m a Vietnam vet. And, um, I got PTSD. I really can’t handle loud noises, uh, big crowds, fireworks. I got a pickup truck and a camper. I can live out here… and be at peace.”
Nomad 3
“I had, um, finally convinced my grandpa, and my papa, and my mama, that we should take off in an RV and see the country. But then both of them were told that they had cancer, they passed away three weeks apart. I began watching Bob Wells’ videos on van-dwelling. Then I bought my van… Paint, because she takes me where I ain’t. And started my healing journey two and a half years ago.”
Merle
“Um, I worked for corporate America, you know, for 20 years. And my friend, Bill, worked for the same company, and he had liver failure. A week before he was due to retire, HR called him in hospice, and said… ‘let’s talk about your retirement.’ And he died 10 days later, having never been able to take that sailboat that he bought out of his driveway. And he missed out on everything. And he told me before he died, ‘just don’t waste any time, Merle.’ ‘Don’t waste any time.’ So I retired as soon as I could. I didn’t want my sailboat to be in the driveway when I died… so, yeah… and it’s not. My sailboat’s out here in the desert.”
Nomad 4
“And then, in and out. Just make… you gotta make the hole bigger so the rope fits. Very… yeah. That’s it. That’s perfect.”
Nomad 5
“Oh, my God. Ladies. Then you go… I love this lifestyle. It is a lifestyle of freedom and beauty, and connection to the Earth. Yet there is a trade-off. You gotta learn to take care of your own shit. Most of us, in this lifestyle, use a five-gallon bucket. Most of us are in vans or something larger. I’m in a Prius, so I use a two-gallon bucket. If you have bad knees, you could use a seven-gallon bucket.”
Nomad 6
“Hi, Fern.”
Brandy’s daughter 2
“Hi.”
Carl
“Hi. Hey. All right. I like that one. Yeah.”
Doug
“Hi, Fern. Hey, how’re you, Fern?”
“See you next year, Fern. Happy Holidays.”
Teresa
“Hey, Fern. Me, too.”
Karie
“Good to meet you.”
Amazon Angela
“Good morning, everyone. How’s everybody doing today? All right, let me get a safety tip. Why is it important to maintain three points of contact? Can I get a standard work tip from you?”
“Hey. Another Smith lyric I have is, ‘when you’re laughing and dancing, and finally living, you hear my voice in your head and think of me kindly.’ And then also the one that means the most to me is, ‘home, is it just a word? Or is it just something that you carry within you? So… yeah. Like, his lyrics are very deep. And then you also have…”
Patty
“I don’t see your reservation. Oh. There it is. Yeah.”
“Carl had a stroke. No. no, no. His daughter came and took him back East. Yeah. They couldn’t take him. Would you like to have him? He’s a really good dog. He’s real friendly. Okay, so you are leaving on Thursday, right? Okay. Um… okay. Amazon pays through Thursday. And then after that, it’s $375 a month. No, but since you’re in a van, it’s easy for you to move and to go south to a warmer place. Oh. Good luck with that. That’s tough. Bye, Fern. We’ll see you next year.”
Storage
“Okay. Thank you. You take care of yourself.”
Female Radio Announcer
“Hey, Santa, Bellweather Auto has a ho, ho, whole lotta great deals on new and used cars and trucks. So come on in and find…”
Unemployment
“Didn’t the Empire Mine shut down and then all of the resident workers had to relocate? Wow. So, when do you need to get back to work? It is a tough time right now. You may want to consider registering for early retirement. I’m not sure exactly what you would be eligible for.”
Rachel
“Hi, there. I’m Rachel. I’m the manager here at Fox Peak. Hi, Fern. Oh, you’re fine. You’re more than welcome. But you know, the temperature is gonna drop. It gets really cold here at night. Yeah. I don’t want to overstep my bounds here. There is a church down by 7-Eleven. It’s a Baptist church, and they do have open beds. Okay. Okay. We’re here if you need anything.”
Nomad 1
“Let you know, huh?
Nomad 2
“Thank you. These are nice.”
RV Fair
“No. Just go on… yeah.”
RV Fair 2
“I got a four-pack for $100. Just like that. That’s what it does to people. It scares them away.”
Quartzite Musician
“All right. In Quartzite, Arizona, “
Campers
“♪♪ In our vans again ♪♪ Goin’ places That we’ve never been ♪♪ Going places ♪♪ We may never go again ♪♪ And we can’t wait to get in our vans again ♪♪ Rubber tramps again ♪♪ Like a band of Gypsies We go down to Quartzite ♪♪ We’ll see Bob again ♪♪”
Dolly
