Nomadland * * ½

A thrilling scene from Nomadland

Nomadland has had a lot of critics buzzing with excitement and being effusive in their praise, so I was keen to see what it's all about.
    It's set just after the last financial crisis. A mature age lady (Frances McDormand)  gets some stuff from a storage shed in snow covered Nowheresville and hits the road in a tired looking mobile home (or RV as the Americans like to call them).  

    Then she pulls into a caravan park where she meets some people who seem to live in their vans.  Then she says "No" to an orphaned dog, then she gets a job packing boxes at Amazon.  Then she pulls into another caravan park. The she meets some more people who are evangelical about being poor and happy and driving around America in their RV's and they all swap stories. Actually that's the most interesting part.  They're real people apparently, not actors.  

    Then she gets another job in a fast food joint.  Then she looks at a concrete dinosaur. Then she meets more people with more stories, and then she meets Dave who fancies her.  God knows why.  

    Then she gets some other work here and there. Then she gets diarrhea (at that point I was feeling much the same way).  Then her van breaks down, then she borrows money from her sister, because she doesn't want to be anywhere else or live anywhere else other than in her pokey little van. Then she visits the bloke who fancies her. Then she goes back to where she came from to clear out her storage shed (pretty symbolic hey?), then she drives off into the sunset. 
    How thrilling. No wonder it got so many five star reviews.  I give it a bit more than two. It's slower than the way she drives and as boring as sitting next to her. 
    Actually, all these grey nomads who have swapped their real estate for "wheel estate" might be an interesting phenomena. The film is adapted from a non-fiction book.  I don't know why they had to pepper it with actors. They should have just made an honest documentary on it.