Nomadland: An Isolation Odyssey! (Hulu)

"Nomadland" is a fictional drama adapted from the 2017 non-fiction book "Nomadland," written by Jessica Bruder.  The film is written and directed by Chloe Zhao ("The Rider," 2017 – Click Here for my review!)  The movie has received numerous Best Picture film festival awards.  It has a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture and is one of the favorites to win it!  With a 94% critics approval and 74% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes, it's got plenty of "buzz!"  Although there is much to like, especially another superb performance by Frances McDormand, Robin and I didn't think the film was worthy of such acclaim.  (Perhaps I am not enjoying movies as much as I did before since I am seeing them at home due to "The Big Bad C.") It's 2011 and the gypsum plant in the small town of Empire, Nevada, has closed down due to lack of business.  It was essentially the only source of revenue and employment there.  Within six months of the plant closing, even the town's zip code was eliminated! Fern (McDormand) and her husband worked at the plant for years.  The plant closed and then, soon after that, her husband died.  Fern had lost everything: her husband, job, town, and her friends that had lived there (since everyone had to leave to seek employment elsewhere).  Fern decides to customize a van so that she can travel around and live in it.  Although beyond cramped, the van has a bed, stove, refrigerator, toilet, etc. At first, she works a temporary Christmas season job at an Amazon warehouse.  Her friend then suggests she head on out to Arizona to meet Bob Wells (played by himself), who has a place where van travelers ("nomads") can live for a while and learn survival skills.  She meets another traveler there – David (David Strathairn), who seems like nice low-key guy.  Bob is passionate about teaching these nomads to survive and really seems to care about them.  Fern also travels other places. such as Badlands National Park, where she meets Swankie (played by Charlene Swankie). What gnawed at me was that I didn't understand Fern's life choice, after everything fell apart in Nevada.  Fern had other, seemingly much more pleasant alternatives, but, for reasons that remain a mystery to me, she wasn't interested in any of them.  Fern's life seemed purposeless and lacking in human connection most of the time, at least to me.  Furthermore, the interactions with the nomads she met along the way were, for the most part, rather superficial, except for a few conversations Fern had with Swankie, Bob, and Dave. It's an interesting movie about a small strata of society that I didn't even know about.  Many of the nomads have no other realistic choice, but some (like Fern and David) have decided to drop out of the rat-race most of us are still living in; however, there didn't seem much joy in their escape from it.