Chloe Chao’s extraordinary film Nomadland is a map of America, seen in Frances McDormand’s face. Unadorned, craggy, her face looms large in every frame—that is, when the camera is not tracking roads along America’s most beautiful open spaces, the deserts of the West. You do not want to take your eyes off McDormand’s Fern, a human embodiment of the American frontier, its resilience and relentless loneliness. We—our culture climbing out of difficult political years– haven’t focused on those places sufficiently, places in Nature threatened by commodification and industry. But the open road motif is an American tradition, a promise of freedom inherent in the pursuit of happiness, the heart of democracy’s foundation.

Rocks feature as prominent edifices in this landscape, and Zhao juxtaposes their humble majesty with the Amazon fulfillment center where Fern sometimes works when she’s not on the road. The steel grid, hive of busyness, brings to mind last year’s excellent documentary American Factory. Fern, maybe a nickname for Frances, although the actress goes by Frannie, is otherwise an unglamorous shrub close to the earth. The cast, an ensemble of real-life nomads, go by their names including co-star David Strathairn, David, a man Fern connects with in her travels, or stasis in one of the RV stations she parks her tricked up van, “Vanguard,” now her home after her mining town, Empire, shut down. Charlene Swankie is a stand out; with a few months to live, she’s in charge of her destiny. She makes you understand Fern’s choices, including one you wish she’d reconsider: a future with David and his warm family.

Fern’s not having cozy, not going back to a real house. When Vanguard suffers engine trouble, mechanics are quick to tell Fern she’s better off buying something new than replacing the old, the usual commercial stance as all things are built to fail. But that’s unacceptable to Fern as her vehicle is customized specific to her needs. Joining a community of like-minded “nomads,” individualists seen as eccentrics in the world at large, Fern offers an object lesson in just how few belongings a person committed to what matters really needs. She orgives David for breaking some dishes from her father, letting go of sentimentality.

In this odd year, as we watch mostly on small screens, the vistas of Nomadland beg to be seen at the cineplex, if such a thing will survive our pandemic season. Already named a Best Feature contender for a Gotham Award, Nomadland will be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and will probably win. Chloe Zhao for Best Director. Swankie ought to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Frances McDormand is the Best Actress to beat. This is how I see the awards shaping up, for now.