Nomadland

Parents need to know that Nomadland is writer-director Chloé Zhao's intimate drama starring Frances McDormand as Fern, an unemployed widow who joins a growing movement of older adults who live out of cars, vans, and RVs and do seasonal work across the country. It has mature themes about loneliness, financial instability, and restlessness, but it's also uplifting and hopeful. There's a beauty in the traveling and a sense that hard work should be valued, whatever that work might look like. One scene includes nonsexual nudity as Fern bathes in a lake, and in two other brief scenes, she uses either the outdoors or a bucket to relieve herself. The camera doesn't shy away from these personal moments. A few conversations include references to death, suicide, terminal illness, and depression, as well as the inability to live in one place after having a home on wheels/on the road. Families with older teens will have plenty to discuss after seeing the film -- from the nomadic lifestyle to the decline of American factory towns to the appeal of the open road.