Alexander Payne is far from a perfect filmmaker — count me among those who think his last film, The Descendants, was solid, but overrated — but there are few directors who can make films about aging and reconciling one’s past like he can. Even if they each had their flaws, About Schmidt, Sideways, and The Descendants (the last three films Payne directed) all got wonderful performances out of their lead actors, and each was about the lead character coming to terms with major life changes in middle age and beyond. With that in mind, I truly think Payne has made the best film of his career with Nebraska.
Woody Grant (a give-him-an-Oscar-nomination now Bruce Dern) is a man in his late seventies with wild, unkempt hair whose face is contorted into a look of perpetual confusion. He has little to live for and is tired of his humdrum life, which perhaps explains why in his semi-senile state he takes a “You Might Be a Winner” magazine sweepstakes at face value and is anxious to claim his “million dollar prize.” So anxious, in fact, that he repeatedly tries to walk to the prize headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska from his home in Billings, Montana. His wife, the outspoken Kate (June Squibb), is at her wit’s end, as is his eldest son Ross (Bob Odenkirk), both of whom want to see Woody put into a nursing home. However, the brunt of taking care of Woody falls on younger son David (Will Forte), who is the only one who tries to treat Woody with respect despite his obvious eccentricities. Woody had never been a great father — he not only had a drinking problem, but he never refused a favor when asked of one by friends and family, often to his detriment — but when Woody refuses to stop trying to walk to Lincoln at every chance he gets David, whose own life is in a flux, agrees to drive him there in order to prove that the prize does not exist.
On the way circumstances force them to stop in Hawthorne, Nebraska, which is where Woody grew up and where the family lived before moving to the “big city.” There Woody and David stay with Woody’s brother and his family, including Woody’s brother’s two comically deadbeat sons, one of whom was in prison for sexual assault (“Not rape!” his doting mother points out, “That’s totally different!”). Hawthorne is the type of dying town in which everyone is either anciently old or unemployed (but mostly ancient) , and soon Woody lets it slip around town about his non-existent fortune to old friends. While most of Hawthorne treats him as a celebrity, most of Woody’s extended family — and his old business partner, Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach) — are soon calling upon old debts to get a piece of Woody’s “prize money.”
Nebraska is wickedly funny, but not for the reasons you might initially think. Though Forte is a Saturday Night Live alum, his character is essentially the straight man (but he does have priceless responses to the absurdities around him). Dern’s Woody inspires constant laughter with his muddled confusion, although how “with it” he is could be debatable. It’s the best role Dern has played in decades, and he definitely deserves the Cannes Best Actor award he won when the film premiered there this year. But the real comedy gem is June Squibb as Kate, who says anything and everything that will come to her mind. There’s a hysterically uncomfortable scene in which Kate demands that the family visits the graves of Woody’s relatives to “pay respects” which descends into Kate ripping apart every deceased member of the Grant clan as well as all the now-dead boys she grew up with who all (according to her, at least) wanted to get in her pants. However, don’t underestimate her humorous nastiness and her constant “what about me” protestations — I’m warning you, there’s more to her character, and Squibb deserves any accolades that will come her way.
One of the somewhat surprising choices is that Payne and cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (who also shot The Descendants and Sideways) shot the film in stark, grainy black and white. It is a curious, though not unexpected choice since it portrays the starkness of the winter Nebraska landscape. It adds a layer of nostalgia to the film of old family photographs, which is appropriate because at it’s core Nebraska is about family.
That landscape also adds to the film’s Midwestern gothic noir style, and the humor immediately brings to mind the movies of the Coen brothers. That’s not surprising because the Coens virtually invented the genre with Fargo, though Nebraska is less dark and more humorous. Though it’s wickedly funny, at it’s core, Nebraska is a story about a son who truthfully doesn’t know his father, but still believes he deserves a measure of dignity despite his senile problems and the fact that he wasn’t a good father. There is so much that rings true in the script by first-time screenwriter Bob Nelson that I couldn’t help but connect with it in my own life (though my father and I have a much better relationship than Woody and David!)
There is so much to enjoy about this film, including Payne’s trademark humorous silences, and even if black and white cinematography makes you groan there is so much here to be entertained by (I was so immersed in the film that I actually stopped noticing it was not in color). Because of that I would be shocked if that turned audiences away. I expect word of mouth to be incredibly positive with this film and I suggest you see this as soon as possible so you’re one of the first people talking about how great it is.
Rating: A hysterical and moving Midwestern family portrait with incredible performances by Bruce Dern and June Squibb (9/10).
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