Nebraska
Alexander Payne’s first two films as a director, “Citizen Ruth” and “Election,” are satires that, while entertaining, leave any semblance of reality behind. Starting with “About Schmidt,” though, Payne began exploring more realistic stories, which took a look at human behavior, and found pain and humor weren’t far apart, whether it was the wine-drinking buddies of “Sideways” or the grieving family of “The Descendants.” As much as I enjoyed those first two films, it’s this side of Payne’s filmmaking personality that’s resonated most strongly with me. He taps into that side once again with “Nebraska,” and it’s a delightful, character-driven comedy about…character, actually. The film stars Bruce Dern as Woody Grant, who’s spent his life drinking and working and making things difficult for his wife (the scrappy June Squibb) and his two sons, David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk). Now, in old age, he has nothing to do, so you can imagine his excitement when he gets a letter in the mail saying he’s won a million dollars. Of course, he hasn’t; it’s one of those magazine subscription sweepstakes letters better left thrown away. But every day, he begins to walk to Lincoln, Nebraska (where the letter says to mail it back to) to go collect his winnings. (He doesn’t drive anymore because he’s gone senile, and his truck doesn’t start.) His wife can’t take it, Ross doesn’t have time to deal with it, and David’s sick of hearing about it. So David does the logical thing…takes Woody on a road trip to Nebraska to “collect his winnings,” while also making a weekend stop in Hawthorne to see some family they haven’t seen for a while.
This is the first film Payne’s directed that he hasn’t written. The script is by Bob Nelson, who has been in the industry for a while, and now has gotten his first script made into a movie. How fortunate to have gotten it into the hands of Payne, who’s been telling this type of story for a decade, and been doing a damn good job at it. Payne has just the right sensibility to bring this script to life in a way that does justice to the material (and filming it in black-and-white, with rich, supple cinematography by Phedon Papamichael, was an inspired touch that pays off beautifully), and he’s got a great cast to work off of. Dern is fantastic– understated, dry of wit, capable of exploring the depth of his character with just the right looks, and he and Squibb make a warm and winning couple. As the sons, Forte and Odenkirk have plenty of surprises up their sleeves; this isn’t a silly SNL-style comedy but observational and heartfelt, and these two SNL vets do strong work. But the spotlight of “Nebraska” ultimately falls on Payne, who plays true with these characters while also revealing the character underneath that defines who they are. It’s very funny stuff, but also very emotional, as well. That’s not an easy combination to make work.
