Directed by Alexander Payne
Starring: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach, Mary Louise Wilson, Missy Doty, Angela McEwan, Rance Howard, Devin Ratray, Tim Driscoll
Rated R for some language.
Nominated for 6 Academy Awards:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor- Bruce Dern
Best Supporting Actress- June Squibb
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
When it comes to Alexander Payne's work, I can go either way; for instance, his second film, ELECTION (1999), in which a cynical teacher played by Matthew Broderick attempts to sabotage an annoyingly chipper, overachieving student's campaign for student body president, is a perfect display of black comedy, nimbly satisfying an audience's schadenfreude on both ends of a battle, with a heaping dose of hilarious cynicism. His Oscar-winning 2011 film THE DESCENDANTS, on the other hand, left me cold and confused about the whole point. NEBRASKA, his latest and an Academy Award-nominee for Best Picture, is a film I enjoyed much better than the latter, but it's an entirely different beast than some of his earlier, wilder comedies, but with the same heaping dose of cynicism, and a surprising spoonful of sugar that sneaks its way in there.
It's a familiar story; an estranged father and son who mend their relationship late in life with a wacky road trip. In this case, that father is Woodward "Woody" Grant (Bruce Dern), a crazy old curmudgeon living in Billings, Montana, who receives letter announcing that he's won a $1 million sweepstakes prize. While his wife Kate (June Squibb) tries unsuccessfully to convince Woody that it's just a mail scam to get people to buy magazines, Woody plans to travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect the money (because only an idiot would have $1 million sent through the mail). His relationship to his sons, David (SNL comedian Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk, best known as Breaking Bad's Saul Goodman), has strained over the years, due in part to Woody's heavy drinking and ornery temperament, and as Woody's erratic behavior grows worse, they start discussing whether to have in put in a retirement home. Despite David's own attempts to convince Woody that he hasn't really won a million dollars, he's going through a life crisis of his own and figures it would hurt to take the time off work and drive to Lincoln with his dad before Woody fall completely out of it. Along the way, they make a stop in Woody's hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska, where David has arranged for something of a family reunion. While staying in town for a couple days with Woody's brother, David learns a lot about his dad that he never realized, as old flames, old pals and old rivals come creeping out of the old woodwork, bringing Woody's life into a whole new light.
NEBRASKA is filmed in black and white, and the result is beautiful, especially given the novelty that black and white cinematography is these days, but I'm unclear about what the precise purpose of the choice was. Payne claims it was to create an "iconic, archetypal look", but I don't understand why that necessitates black and white. SCHINDLER'S LIST makes sense in black and white because it "de-beautifies" the horrific onscreen action and emphasizes the 1940s documentary-style that we associate with black and white photos and footage, and movies like THE ARTIST and FRANKENWEENIE are obvious for black and white because they pay direct homage to film eras when black and white film dominated. It doesn't really matter, because in the way it's used for NEBRASKA, it fits perfectly with the film's aesthetic, but I'm just wondering why that choice was made. After all, it's the kind of choice that has to be fought for in the light of studio investments.
It's pretty funny, but mostly of a gentle sort, with only a few "wacky" moments, such as an octogenarian woman flashing her nether-regions at a former suitor's gravestone to let him know what he missed out on. Most of the humor is a more naturally-occurring manner, such as Woody's elderly belligerence and the excessively spare dialogue exchanges between the men of the Grant family. Payne's trademark cynicism and occasionally biting "realism" is still there, but this lets people off a bit gentler than some of Payne's previous films. It may be rated R, but it's actually a fairly family-friendly film (the rating is almost entirely for a single crude insult, in addition to a couple PG-13-safe f-words). Obviously, I don't mean in a Disney sense, but for older families, it has a good story about family bonds and understanding in familial relationships.
Although it has a Best Director nomination in addition to its Best Picture nod, which ought to make it a more serious Oscar presence than four of the other Best Picture nominees, NEBRASKA has largely been left out of the Academy Awards talk. It's the type of film that rounds out the nominations, but rarely wins. It's a charmer, but not an alarmer.
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| Left to Right: Will Forte as David, Bruce Dern as Woody and June Squibb as Kate. |
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