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Beautiful, hilarious, poignant film
Author: blanche-2 from United States18 November 2013
Alexander Payne is one director who marches to the beat of his own drummer - films in Nebraska, uses black and white, and casts some parts locally to get the correct flavor. He doesn't miss a note.
Nebraska is the story of a family of usual dysfunctionals living where else but Nebraska - a quiet, distant father with a little dementia, Woody (Bruce Dern), his two sons, David and Ross (Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk), and their perpetually complaining mother Kate (June Squibb). David sells home electronics and just broke up with his girlfriend; Ross works for a news station and recently replaced the "talent" up front.
The current major problem is that Woody has received something akin to a Publisher's Clearing House certificate telling him he's won a million dollars. All he has to do is buy these magazines and check if the numbers are his. All Woody sees is that he won a million dollars. No one will take him to Lincoln to claim his prize so he starts walking - more than once - until David says he will take him.
On the way, they stop by his parents' home town and drop in on Woody's brother and his family - a scary bunch. Kate takes a bus in and shows David around the cemetery in a scene you'll never forget, trust me. Woody runs into his old partner, Ed (Stacy Keach), and as word spreads that Woody is going to be a millionaire, everybody wants a piece of him, including Ed, who says Woody owes him quite a bit.
This is really a character-driven film, with some of the most vibrant, fleshed-out characters ever on screen and some of the starkest landscapes, filmed in black and white, and giving the viewer the feeling of what it's like to live among miles and miles of farmland interspersed with small towns.
Bruce Dern gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a lifelong alcoholic who has escaped inside himself, a man out of touch and seemingly untouched by any events around him. As the outspoken Kate, June Squibb is absolutely hilarious - always yelling at Woody, threatening to put him in a home, complaining about him, but just don't let anybody take advantage of him, or you'll have to deal with her.
The sons mirror their parents, with David quiet and thoughtful but trying to bond with his father, and Ross, more confident and less sympathetic.
In learning about his father's background, in talking with his old girlfriend (Angela McEwan) David begins to see the man that his father once was and what shaped him. And he finds out that love is sometimes an unspoken thing, but it's there all the same.A wonderful film, powerful in its simplicity. Don't miss it.
*
"Nebraska" offers viewers an unstinting view of some very unpleasant things: extreme decrepitude, boundless stupidity, greed and ignorance. There is also very deep, and very painful, love on display in this portrait of an embittered working class eking out a meaningless existence in a dysfunctional and remote place. "Nebraska" oscillates between cynicism and schmaltz, pulling off a wondrous kind of emotional alchemy that few films aspire to, let alone attain.
All of the acting is first rate, though the characterizations are rather broadly drawn. Will Forte plays a dutiful, sensitive, repressed son with seemingly unlimited patience for the eccentricities of those around him. He's the perfect foil for Bruce Dern's semi-catatonic, alcoholic ramblings (both verbal and spatial). June Squibb serves up hilarious venom to spice up the mix.
There were scenes in the movie that so perfectly captured the narrow, soulless, deadening ethos so prevalent in small-town America that I could hardly stand to watch them. It was almost as if the tire stores, bars, gas stations and motels of every desolate corner of America were rolled up into one set of visuals here, captured in stunning black and white cinematography.I highly recommend "Nebraska."
*
Bruce Dern gives the performance of his life. He is wonderful. He maintains the quality of tuning in and out of reality throughout the film. Typical of someone with dementia, you are never really sure if he's there or not. There is a moment in the film when he drives and you can just see him glow and come alive.
This is not a film for everyone because it moves slow, but true movie buffs will love it.Filmed in black and white and bleak (if that were a color) it's a son that takes his father on a road trip It's quietly poignant, with a lot of very funny moments in it. When the mother is in the scene, she steals every one.The cousins are a riot and the family members are a cast of characters. This is the sort of film that you leave but doesn't leave you.
*
I saw the movie at the Helsinki International Film Festival. It tells a story about an old man who is certain that he has won a million dollars and wants to get to Nebraska to collect it. His family is sure that it is a hoax but his son chooses to drive him there so that the thing wouldn't bother his dad anymore.
Everything about the movie is very low key and the pacing is quite slow. This comes from the choice of shooting it in black and white, style of acting, and the locations and events depicted in the film. For long periods, I found it a little hard to get immersed into the events on the screen and empathize with the characters. I kept thinking that the movie repeats what I did not like about Alexander Payne's earlier work About Schmidt. But then somehow the movie started to grow on me.
I still feel there is almost weird resemblance to the road trip and family reunion Jack Nicholson's character goes through in About Schmidt but Nebraska has merits of its own. For one, the characters are quite well written. Even the supporting roles provide witty observations of different ways we might react to other person's fortune. Also, the acting is very good throughout the film. The main characters' lives have become unsatisfying and they are trying to deal with it in different ways.
Even though it is a little frustrating to watch people who struggle to find anything meaningful to do or say, the script and the actors are able to draw a very accurate picture of everyday life as it sometimes can be. Here and there, they are able to provide a few laughs and even some satisfaction when the characters are developing, albeit slowly.Overall, I'd end up recommending the film if you have enjoyed Alexander Payne's previous work.
*
Director Alexander Payne is currently one of the best dramatists in cinema right now simply because he makes films about realistic people in realistic situations. Payne seems to see no value in fantasy elements, far-fetched circumstances, or overly-comedic nonsense. His accomplished filmography includes the uproariously funny and poignant Sideways, The Descendants, which I went on to name my favorite film of 2012, the bold satire Election, the humble and depressing About Schmidt, and the daring abortion comedy-drama Citizen Ruth.
Now with Nebraska he adds another incredible film to his filmography. Heavy on the drama, smart with its character depictions, but never schmaltzy nor self-satisfying, Nebraska paints a bleak and depressing portrait of Midwestern life centering on a broken family with little to live for. One day, however, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern in a career-making performance) finds something to live for. Senile, an alcoholic in denial, and not one for long conversations, Woody receives a letter in the mail telling him he won a $1,000,000 prize and should come to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect it. His son, the quietly-sad David (Will Forte), informs him that the letter is a shameless piece of scam mail that requires the subscription to multiple magazines to even qualify for a raffle to potentially win the jackpot.
Woody doesn't care. He believes that people or an organization wouldn't say something that wasn't one-hundred percent true. Residing in Billings, Montana, Woody abandons his long-suffering, brutally honest wife (June Squibb) numerous times by aimlessly walking (sometimes trudging) down interstate highways and side-streets to venture out to Lincoln to collect his supposed earnings. At first, David can't fathom his father's logic. He has informed him several times this is a hopeless scam, that he is in no condition to travel long distances (he can't drive), and he doesn't even need $1 million to begin with. Woody, stubborn as a mule (or is he?), offers very little reasoning for his actions. He simply does what he wants. But when people in Woody's hometown get wind of this, along with distant family members that maybe should've remained distant, Woody now owes everyone money and a favor.
Director Alexander Payne and writer Bob Nelson work wonderfully with Nebraska, especially Nelson, who is sure to paint the characters as realistic as they are relatable to the audiences. Consider Woody's rather large family, made up of codgers who speak in disjointed sentences and delightfully funny souls who like to complain every chance they get. One of these people in particular is Woody's wife Kate, portrayed by a fearless June Squibb where almost everything she says is a laugh riot. A key scene comes when Woody, Kate, and David are visiting the gravesites of Woody's family members and for every person buried six feet under, Kate has a smarmy remark for them.
It's all the more surprising to note that Will Forte, usually known for playing characters in goofball comedies, does tremendous work in a serious, darkly funny, but also depressing drama film. Forte embodies an everyman quality that will make him familiar to some, and the way he tries to live in the boundaries of reality while giving his father something to live for is easily relatable to someone who wants the best for their own parents. However, the performance of the two hours is easily given by Bruce Dern, who has the rare ability to play detached and clueless with a true sense of believability. I can only think of Paul Dano's requirements for his character in Prisoners, released about two months back, where Dano had to always bear a facial expression that rendered him dazed and almost entirely out of touch with reality. Dern uses the effect to true emotional heights in Nebraska, with the uncanny ability to sit with a blank stare on his face and look as if he's about to burst into tears.
That precise quality of Nebraska is why I was so drawn in (along with the excellent black and white photography); its lack of milking its story for emotions. It has the very ingredients to make a person cry from the senile father who never really was one to his children, the broken family, and the unremarkable rural life that seemingly offers no hope outside of a desolate landscape. However, just like Woody, the film looks on the brighter side of life, optimistic about the peculiar instances and finding solace in a practical adventure. It doesn't have time to waste on sappy musical cues and actors phoning in emotion; it's much too concerned for articulating the characters and the adventure at hand.
It's also wonderful to see Will Forte in a pleasantly different role, alongside his frequent collaborator and friend Bob Odenkirk as siblings in Nebraska. The last time Forte and Odenkirk teamed up, if I recall correctly, The Brothers Solomon happened and such a film doesn't even deserve a mention in this review.Starring: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, and Stacy Keach. Directed by: Alexander Payne.
*
"Nebraska" stars Bruce Dern playing Woody Grant, a 77-year-old man living in Billings, Montana who believes he's won a million dollars from a publisher's sweepstakes just because he received a craftily worded sales letter from the company. When the movie opens, we see Dern on foot, hoofing his way on the outskirts of Billings and on his way to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim his prize. It quickly becomes clear that the years have not been kind to Dern's character Woody. Alcohol, age, the bleak northern US Midwest, and the long line of life's events have left Woody a bit addled, which is why a sales letter can make him believe he's a millionaire. Turns out, he was always like that.
Woody's son David, played by Saturday Night Live alum Will Forte, also lives in Billings. He sells home theaters and other consumer electronics in the local appliance store, drives a dented Suburu wagon, and has the usual dysfunctional relationship with his increasingly disconnected father. After Woody makes several attempts on his own to escape Billings and make it to Lincoln, David agrees to take Woody to Lincoln in his Suburu. Events along the way take both Woody and David to Woody's tiny fictional hometown in northeast Nebraska where Woody's past awaits.
And there you have the setup for another of director Alexander Payne's wonderful road-trip comedies, cast from precisely the same mold as "About Schmidt" and "Sideways." This movie takes us through Woody's long past so that the present can seen with sharper focus. If you like those movies, you will love "Nebraska" too.
There's one more thing you will also love and that is June Squibb's portrayal of Woody's wife Kate. Squibb plays Kate as a force of nature with a mouth that's funny, insightful, profane, and tender all at the same time. Dern's already won one film award for his Woody and many of us believe Squibb will do the same with her Kate Grant. Squibb also played the wife who suddenly dropped dead in "About Schmidt." We didn't get to see much of her in that movie but she gets plenty of opportunity to steal a bunch of scenes in "Nebraska." This is a very funny movie with some poignant statements to make about aging, familial relationships, and the past's influence on the present. In that way, "Nebraska" is just like director Payne's other road-trip movies. But "Nebraska" is its own story with an entirely different take on these topics.
For some of us, it's a lot of fun to see great movies before they open. We got the opportunity to see "Nebraska" a few days before it opened in a national expansion of the New York Film Critics Series, which started in 1995. Last-minute tickets for this event were provided by Paramount through the tireless efforts of Tim Sika, founder and head of the San Jose Camera Cinema Club. Thanks Tim.
*
My favorite comedy is sideways (among others) and I love Mr Paynes films (like Election. As an advanced senior I was totally with Bruce Dern, the crankiness, the lack of balance, the drinking the boredom. the many naps. WIll Forte is absolutely superb as a kind loving son, in every way. His patience his help on the many scrapes his dad gets into and his true love. He is a cinch for an Oscar nomination. So are Dern and the actor who plays his wife. Although the film is outright funny, the sensitivity which Payne shows in handling the actors and the bleakness of Nebraska. The people of the small towns are portrayed is as close to real people as you can get. The black and white added to the story, especially the portrayal of the cities and small farms. I think this film will be loved by seniors. Younger people, after they have see Hunger Games could learn a lot from the lives of their grand-parents. A magnificent film, go see it!!
*
NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL: There is a magical and profound power that is exuded from Alexander Payne's film "Nebraska." I loved just about every second of it. Written by Bob Nelson, the black-and-white dramedy takes us through the beautiful and rural Midwest showcasing opulent and lavish cinematography by Phedon Papamichael. And let's not forget the trio of stunning performances from Oscar-nominee Bruce Dern, Will Forte, and June Squibb. The film tells the story of an aging and ailing Woody (Dern) and his son David (Forte) as they venture off from Montana to Nebraska to collect a million dollar prize that Woody believes he has won.
I've long thought that Alexander Payne was one of the more overrated writer/directors working today. Winning two Oscars for screenplay, only one of them was warranted. I merely enjoyed his film "Election" over ten years ago, couldn't find the emotional connection in "About Schmidt" and found myself perplexed by the love that poured in for "The Descendants." His Oscar-winning film "Sideways" was the only film that lived up to the promise and still retains its magic on repeated viewings. The Paramount Vantage film presents an impeccable example of Payne's directorial skills and style when they're utilized with the right material. "Nebraska" is Alexander Payne's best film, bar none. He creates an intimate setting, even when driving cross-country or walking around an abandoned home, Payne keeps the story close and the responses authentic.
Bruce Dern is perfectly used and exquisitely raw presenting the actor's best outing of his career. As the co-anchor of the story, Dern is finally given a chance to show what Hollywood has been missing out on for over fifty years. Touchingly reserved through most of the narrative, Dern allows Woody to open up to the audience for the briefest of moments that works beautifully. It's an Oscar-worthy performance.
Will Forte surprisingly underplays and buries his normal comedic ticks and beats that made him so successful on "Saturday Night Live." His David searches and finds many of the mysteries that embody the enigma of his alcoholic father, giving Forte an ability to connect fully with the audience. He is equally as affecting as Bruce Dern and this will hopefully lead him into more complex and audacious roles like this in the future.
The wonderful and delightful June Squibb steals the show. Getting the film's biggest laughs and in many ways, offering herself up as the emotional pillar in many aspects of the narrative, Squibb is someone that could walk her way to an Oscar. Nelson's writing, especially in the creation of Kate, Woody's wife, is freshly executed. Say hello to one of your Supporting Actress nominees.
Other supporting players giving their all is Stacy Keach playing a sleazy old friend of Woody's and Bob Odenkirk as David's brother Ross, who bounces well off comedian Forte in some of the film's best scenes.One aspect that I fell in love with was the score of Mark Orton is musical accompaniment lands precisely with every bar and in every scene. Editor Kevin Tent, who has worked on all of Payne's previous films, finally has found his groove and maintains a steady pace to tell our story. I have to admit that when I first heard that the film was going to be shot in black and white, I'm immediately thought it was going to used as a gimmick.
Nearly five minutes into the movie, you can see exactly why he chose to use it. Papamichael captures the natural elements of light in several scenes, some involving a simple living room, others when we're in the car with the family. "Nebraska" is one of the year's best pictures. Something that will surely appeal to a certain demographic of the Academy. It runs as a light and comedic companion piece to Michael Haneke's "Amour." It's a film that will surely be in contention for several Academy Awards including Best Picture.
*
Director Alexander Payne "Sideways" (2004) and "About Schmidt" (2002) deftly handles the road-movie plot structure once again with dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society, yielding fantastic results yet again, as a heartfelt journey to examine his frail and flawed characters. Payne himself is a Nebraska native who felt strongly that the movie be filmed black and white to capture the mood of the old American heartland, and in order for the film to receive funding from Paramount, he had to settle for a smaller budget. As a result, Payne films and casts the movie in local communities with actual residents which provides a realistic texture to the family bonding tale. "Nebraska" is a humorous and heart-rendering story of family, but it also sheds a light onto the people of America's heartland, and our countries economic, moral, and cultural decline.
"Nebraska" starts as a road movie, with a father and son traveling from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska. David (Will Forte) has decided to indulge his father Woody (Bruce Dern), who is struggling with dementia and thinks that he can pick up his $1 million in winnings from a magazine distributor in Lincoln. En route, they stop for the weekend in Hawthorne, Dern's hometown, where they're joined by his wife (June Squibb), and his other son (Bob Odenkirk) amidst your stereotypical Midwestern relatives and friends, all of whom are extremely interested to learn that there's now a millionaire before them.
The central relationship between Dern's stubbornly gullible dad and Forte's passively irritated son gradually deepens as the movie makes its way through middle America. What makes the film such a delight to watch are the individuality of its characters. Each one is fun to watch in their own right; the father's relentless determination, the mother's humorous outbursts, and the son's sympathy and desire to bond with his father. "Nebraska" reaches an emotional conclusion that echoes of "About Schmidt" and "The Descendants" (2011) with an underlying sense of lives largely squandered, but handled with grace and finesse that feels innately genuine. "Nebraska" is another finely tuned, superior slice of cinema crafted by Alexander Payne who achieves a more mature, sentimental tone than previous films. The all-around marvelous performances from the cast and supporting non-professional actors add an unmistakable authenticity to this slice of Americana.
*
Time is a peculiar yet universally felt concept whose effects can be seen in its numerous consequences either through the obvious traits of aging or the far more subtle and subjectively felt intangibles such as regret. In the heart of the Midwest there are depressingly poetic examples of this thoroughly felt concept of time how the vast stretches of what appears to be infinite plains of nothing are filled with monuments of ruin either in the ghost town cities or the deserted farmland all of which are consequences of economic hardship and familial anchors.
This is the melancholic setting of Alexander Payne's new film Nebraska, a sad yet endearing road trip film that becomes a sort of modern Don Quixote influenced story where a regret filled, dementia gaining father resembling the infamous dreamer Quixote resiliently chases the remnants of a thin dream accompanied by his affably neutered son serving as the loyal Sancho Panza. Nebraska clearly resembles previous films that have captured the distinct American spirit and eccentric characters of the parched Midwest, including Peter Bogdonovich's The Last Picture Show and David Lynch's oddly accessible The Straight Story, but remains uniquely an Alexander Payne film containing his penchant for mixing whimsically dry humor with poignant humanity.
At the center of Payne's film is an astonishingly subtle performance from experienced acting veteran Bruce Dern whose stern blankness and aging dementia makes for an intriguing parallel to the derelict environments throughout the Midwest setting which is captured brilliantly through cinematographer Phedon Papamichael's poetic black & white imagery. This whimsical yet mournful ode to Midwestern life, values, and legacy is aided through the lost art of subtle acting and the usually non-existent talent for subtle direction allowing the intended humor to land directly and the emotional heart to enter gracefully. While Nebraska might be an engaging,
humorous, and sweet amalgamation of Payne's previous works where the road trip element of Sideways meets the intimate family dynamic of The Descendants it's definitely a transition film for the quirky storyteller as it embraces a far more poetic and humanist side to the director's incredibly heartfelt style of filmmaking. It's difficult to say where exactly Nebraska will fall in Payne's established film canon but as it stands on its own it's a deeply lyrical reflection on the loss of time and a credible affirmation on the long enduring existence of hope.
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