Review of Nebraska (2013) by Stuart K — 28 Apr 2014

Directed by Alexander Payne, (About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011)), this moving road movie feels like it could have come from the early 1970's, and it has DNA of Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (1971) and Paper Moon (1973) about it's structure, right down to the stark black and white setting.

It shows a world seldom seen on film, but it's absolutely brilliant. When elderly alcoholic Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) receives a letter claiming he's won a $1 million sweepstakes prize, (it's clearly a scam), and Woody is trying to get from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim the prize, but his son David (Will Forte) can't talk him out of it, but with Woody's wife Kate (June Squibb) about to lose patience, David agrees to drive Woody to Lincoln, and they stop off on the way in Woody's hometown of Hawthorne, Nebraska.

They stop with Woody's brother Ray (Rance Howard) and his family. But after Woody's old business partner Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach) hears of Woody's apparent windfall, he and everyone wants a part of it.

This is moving, poignant and funny look at middle America, and how there's some places still lost in time, and how America is moving backwards with the Recession. Dern is brilliant, and he deserves an Oscar for this, and it's a reminder of what a good actor he still is.

Payne has a knack for quirky character pieces, and this is his best.