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The nomads didnt get hurt only at Amazon.
Bruder describes the nomads as plug-and-play labor, the epitome of convenience for employers in search of seasonal staffing.
They appear where and when they are needed.
They bring their own homes …
They arent around long enough to unionize.
On jobs that are physically difficult, many are too tired even to socialize after their shifts.
As one 77-year-old worker told her: They love retirees because were dependable.
Well show up, work hard, and are basically slave labor.
Already an Oscar favorite,many criticshavepraisedNomadlandas aportrait of modern America.
It was McDormand, who after reading Bruders book, enlisted Zhao to bring that vision to life.
After work, Fern runs into an old friend, who asks, hows working at Amazon?
Great money, Fern replies.
These are cast as interchangeable backdrops, not specific challenges to overcome.
It feels less like artistic license than a betrayal of workers reality.
In interviews, the filmmakers have given mixed answers about whetherNomadlandis a political movie.
I mean, we simply show Fern working there.
Obviously, you’ve got the option to find politics in anything.
It was right before they started giving people $15 an hour, she toldThe Hollywood Reporterlast fall.
Of course, paying a wage would be considered the bare minimum.
(And whether its a fair wage is far from a consensus amongworkers themselves.)
What kind of film wouldNomadlandhave been if the real nomads perspectives had been front and center?
I mean, the rich are getting richer while were sitting here getting poorer.
Bruder informs us that DiPino eventually dies of cancer.
No more freezing in the desert or in Kansas!
No more cramped spaces …
I will miss you dearly.
These stories are blatantly absent from the film adaptation.
Over the last year, the inhumanity Bruder described has been made plain.
As I write this,Amazon workers in Alabama are votingon a historic unionization effort.
The companysall-out efforts to quash the movementspeak volumes.
Not every story about the present needs to be explicitly political.
For too many people, theres no driving into the sunset.
Theres just the edge of breaking down, again and again.
