In making what would prove to be a multi-Oscar winner, director Chloe Zhao tracked a life well lived, relating a story of a laid off worker striking out for a new life on the road, not so much homeless as houseless. The film centres on a stunning performance by Frances McDormand as the traveller living life on the margins. It follows Zhao’s interest in intimate, small-scale dramas with non-professional casts set against the massive skies and wide-open landscapes of America’s heartland. With a vivid music score by Ludovico Einaudi this stirring film stays in the memory and with its sumptuous cinematography, repays repeated viewing. Cert 12A. Running time 108 mins.