Telluride at Dartmouth: "Nebraska"
Alexander Payne’s (Sideways) tender, complex film follows an estranged father (Bruce Dern) and son on a cross-country journey to claim a supposed $1M sweepstakes.
Bruce Dern won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his performance as Woody: a broke, bitter, recovering alcoholic who barely speaks to his shrewish wife (scene-stealer June Squibb) or grown sons. Convinced that he’s won a mail-order sweepstakes, he embarks on a cross-country journey, son David playing Sancho to his Don Quixote. Along the way, they collide with Woody’s past, and David makes discoveries about his father he never could expect. Alexander Payne (The Descendants) creates a clear-eyed perception of cruelty, frustration and greed in this Middle American landscape, fully tempered by his thorough and obvious love for it. Phedon Papamichael’s bleakly beautiful black-and-white vistas and a superb cast of supporting performers make Nebraska Payne’s toughest, most tender and complex work yet. (U.S., 2013, 110m) Courtesy of Paramount