NOMADLAND
Beautiful, searching, and spiritually adrift — for adults only.
Should You Watch It?
NOMADLAND offers a beautiful, poetic look at nature and the people who build a life on the road. Frances McDormand gives the film its strongest energy as Fern, a likable woman searching for work and direction after losing her job. The movie also includes morally uplifting moments: people care for one another, and family matters.
But the film’s spiritual center is less steady. Fern’s wanderlust drives her, and the movie’s Romantic worldview treats personal freedom and self-direction as powerful guides. The film also includes light pagan attitudes, explicit bathing nudity, brief foul language, and two references to suicide.
Adults who can thoughtfully process those concerns may find a moving and worthwhile drama. Families with children or young teens should choose something else. The practical answer: WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESAfter losing her job at a Nevada sheetrock plant, Fern, a woman in her fifties, leaves her settled life behind and takes to the road in her van. She finds work, meets other older travelers, and joins a community of people trying to begin again through life on the move.
As Fern travels through the American West, she encounters old acquaintances, new friends, family, and questions about what she is seeking — and whether she can remain anywhere for long.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means NOMADLAND has real strengths but falls short of being fully satisfying. Frances McDormand gives a noteworthy performance, bringing Fern gusto, flare, and enough fun to keep the story entertaining. The film also features a beautiful melodic score.
The rest of the movie is less compelling. It is shot like a travelogue documentary, which captures the beauty of nature and poetry but can make the drama feel less satisfying. Based on a nonfiction book, it also features some of the real-life people connected to that book. The result is a thoughtful, uneven drama led by a strong central performance.
The Worldview
NOMADLAND presents a Romantic worldview mixed with moral and light Christian elements. Fern is driven by wanderlust, which viewers learn is connected to her experience of being sedentary with her late husband. The film celebrates exploration, nature, poetry, and taking ownership of one’s future.
The movie also shows that people can care for one another and that family matters. Its pagan elements appear in characters doing what they want when they want to do it. The attitude is not presented as intentionally harmful or unnecessarily selfish, but as part of a season of life in which people are trying to direct their own futures. Fern sings Christmas carols about the birth of Christ in one early scene, but there is no other positive faith content.
The film’s wandering lacks the biblical emphasis on God’s sustaining presence and deliverance. Scripture presents God not as absent from the wilderness but as the Shepherd who leads His people: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Romantic worldview overall with some light Christian, moral and pagan elements, including main character has an air of wanderlust about her motivations for being on the road (viewers come to learn stems from being sedentary with her late husband during his life), movie captures the beauty of nature in the American West and poetry too with the same zeal for exploration, several characters care for one another, and it’s clear that family matters, some pagan content where characters do what they want to do when they want to do it, but it doesn’t come from a motive to be intentionally harmful or unnecessarily selfish, but rather their season of life where they’re trying to take more ownership of their future activities, and woman sings Christmas carols about the birth of Christ in one early scene, but no other positive faith content occurs
Foul Language
Two obscenities, one Jesus profanity, two light OMG profanities, implied bathroom activities, and woman jokingly sticks out her tongue after a coworker gives her boss a correct answer
Violence
An elderly woman talks about reading a book on how to kill yourself, elderly woman mentions she planned to leave the gas on in her house and then maybe light a match but thought better of it in the end, a crocodile in captivity eats bloody dead rabbits, man recounts that his son committed suicide but doesn’t go into graphic detail
Sex
No sexual content or references
Nudity
Full female nudity as a woman bathes in a body of water, woman pulls up her pants after going to the bathroom but viewers only see her underwear at a distance, upper male nudity in one scene, and woman takes a shower but no explicit nudity shown there
Alcohol Use
Scene in a bar, and characters take a few shots, plus alcohol at a cookout
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Some smoking and woman takes some medication, but no illegal drugs to get high;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Nothing else objectionable.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Fern’s desire to keep moving raises questions about what we are running from and what we are seeking. How does Scripture describe God’s guidance when we feel lost or restless?
Psalm 23:1–3 · Proverbs 3:5–6The travelers care for one another even while living difficult lives. What does Christian love look like when people have limited resources or security?
Galatians 6:2 · 1 John 3:17–18The film values nature and poetry. How can creation point us toward its Creator rather than becoming an end in itself?
Psalm 19:1 · Romans 1:20Fern’s story includes family, grief, and the desire for freedom. What does Scripture teach about belonging, responsibility, and the kind of freedom that gives life?
Galatians 5:13 · Ephesians 2:19The Final Word
NOMADLAND is a beautiful but spiritually unsettled drama, elevated by Frances McDormand’s performance and its compassion for people on the margins. Its nudity, profanity, suicide references, and Romantic worldview make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, it is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For other family options, see.
