Nomadland

If you want a drama that takes its characters as seriously as its plot, Nomadland is available in Australia on Disney Plus, and in the US on Netflix right now. The runtime earns every minute, with nothing here that feels like padding. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Frances McDormand sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. Start it on Disney Plus whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

Nomadland arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. Character-driven storytelling at its most effective — Nomadland earns every emotional beat it goes for. A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad. Frances McDormand and David Strathairn lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. Nomadland came out in 2021. Nomadland resists tidy resolutions in a way that respects how messy real consequences actually are. It delivers reliably on what it promises, which is more than most of its competition manages.

Nomadland is what you recommend to people who say they do not really watch much. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Best experienced as a single, sustained watch from start to finish. Frances McDormand is the centre of it, and it is one of their strongest performances on record. The patience it asks of you early on is paid back with interest.