Nomadland
Year: 2020
Rating: R
Length: 107 minutes / 1.78 hours
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a psychological structure that explains how people will obtain their basic needs before attempting to fill psychological and self-fulfillment needs. In the current American culture, these basic needs of food, water, warmth, rest, and safety are usually met by living in a house. Of course, there are plenty of strings attached to household living—such as a steady income through employment. While this is the most common way to reach self-fulfillment, people out there manage to achieve it without living as part of the standard American structure.
Nomadland (2020) is an intimate look into the society of people who—for lack of a better term—are houseless. Part of me was jealous of the amount of freedom these people have to live the lives they want, experiencing much of the natural beauty of the middle of the United States. Much in the same way that Nebraska (2013) captured the realities of the flyover states, Nomadland presents a part of the country that most who live on the coasts rarely get to experience. In fact, it does such a good job of representing this region that I’d almost consider Nomadland to be a pseudo-documentary.
As someone who has chosen the standard route of buying a house and working a job until I retire, it is somewhat frustrating watching some of these people try to survive when the simple answer is to settle down. That being said, the hidden message in Nomadland paints a picture of a healthcare system that sometimes forces individuals into these kinds of situations. Settling down isn’t so simple when there are extenuating medical circumstances. And despite the isolation of these nomads, their community seems tight enough to overcome the loneliness that must accompany them with their freedom.
A pseudo-documentary of living life without a house, I give Nomadland 4.0 stars out of 5.
