Nebraska (Alexander Payne) [48 points / 5 votes]
"The characters in Alexander Payne’s films have lived. No other working filmmaker populates his films with so many individuals that give the impression of depth, the look of one who really is the sum of all of their experiences, for better or worse. And few characters in any movie seem to have lived as much as Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), a senile old man convinced by a piece of junk mail that he has won $1 million. This isn’t because he has had a spectacular life; quite the opposite, though through even an apparently unremarkable existence one can sense the depth of a lifetime of experiences, the reservoir of memories and hopes and disappointments that total one’s time on earth. Payne and screenwriter Bob Nelson understand and depict the way that mortality has a way of making everything, from success to relationships, a race against the clock that most won’t win.
The film is both hilarious and melancholy, with its plain, vast Nebraska landscape rendered beautiful by Phedon Papamichael’s gorgeous, stirring black-and-white cinematography. The cast is impeccable: Forte as Woody’s son, fantastic as a kind everyman with more nerve than his lowly station would suggest; June Squibb as the family’s fiery, foulmouthed matriarch; Bob Odenkirk as Forte’s brother, pragmatic but supportive; Stacey Keach as Dern’s old business partner, a rotten fellow who gets what’s coming to him; and Dern, giving the year’s best performance as a man broken by years of alcoholism, disappointment, and mediocrity. Nebraska draws out these people like few works do, actually exploring the implications of legacy, identity, and the ghosts of the past. If great movies are ultimately about people, this is one of the best." -- James Frazier
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