Director Alexander Payne is an artist with vision. In Nebraska, the man who helmed Election, Sideways, and The Descendants delivers again, this time in the form of a distinctively artistic comedy.
Director Alexander Payne is an artist with vision. In Nebraska, the man who helmed Election, Sideways, and The Descendants delivers again, this time in the form of a distinctively artistic comedy.
Woody (played by Bruce Dern) and his family live in small-town Nebraska. They are not exactly high achievers, but they get by with what they have. Woody, the family’s disgruntled patriarch, has drunk away any motivation he ever had, and now he passes through his later years in an addled fog. One day he receives a publisher’s sweepstakes announcement implying that he has won a million dollars. Knowing he has let his family down all his life, Woody decides to go claim the prize in order to leave something of value to his sons.
The majority of the narrative follows Woody on his quixotic journey to accept the fortune. His son David, who is portrayed by Will Forte, is slogging through life himself. Doubting the legitimacy of the sweepstakes, David decides to drive to Lincoln with his father. David uses the time alone with Woody to try and unravel his enigmatic personality, and the gruff but humorous moments between them give the film its quiet charm.
Filmed in black and white, the human color of Nebraska emerges from an effectively contrived, depressingly gray palette. Its deadpan delivery and simplicity mix with a confident sentimentality to give it a brilliance that only contrasts like these can provide.