Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 19/20)
Plot: An old fart believes he's won a million dollars because somebody sent him a letter telling him that he won a million dollars. After he's stopped trying to walk to the titular state to collect his prize, his son decides to make the road trip with him. They stop and visit family first.
A lot of black on this poster, too. I only watched this because I saw the poster and thought it was a sequel to Gravity where we get to follow the rest of George Clooney's story, one where drifts through all that nothingness and winds up smack in the middle of the Old Man Nebula, dates space vixens much younger than him, and lives happily ever after. And how's this for sneaky? I just spoiled a movie different from the movie that you are reading about. I might as well tell you that the old man in this, played both sadly and hilariously by Oscar-nominated Bruce Dern, didn't really win a million dollars because the sweepstakes thing was a scam. Jen really liked this movie because Dern and movie wife June Squibb (also nominated, but not in the same category that Dern was nominated in) reminded her of raunchier versions of my parents. I liked the movie because I like movies about old people, especially quirky old people. Woody fits right in with that old guy who rode his lawnmower to see his brother in Lynch's The Straight Story. Will Forte, a Saturday Night Live funnyman, plays the character who is probably the least funny unless the suddenly-ubiquitous Bob Odenkirk's character is not as funny. I liked Forte even though he wasn't nominated for anything at all. The funniest characters might have been Bart and Cole, Woody's nephews, who just had to appear on the screen to make me laugh. Every black and white shot of those two--always together with one of them perpetually grinning like the idiot that he is--was funny for some reason. Why is this movie in black and white, by the way? I'm not complaining because I think more movies should be black and white and liked the look of this one, but is there something obvious I'm missing about the decision? I think black and white just fits certain stories better, and this one's very comfortable in its monochromatic hues. It's a gray tale about a guy finishing his life gracelessly, without dignity, so maybe the black and white feels appropriate because of that. This is a story that makes all of its points early on and the type of story where you really know how it's all going to end up, or at least you almost know how it's going to end up. Sometimes, that can make a movie pretty dull and make the majority of it all seem kind of pointless, but with Nebraska, it kind of helps the viewer just settle in, almost like the movie is a comfortable blanket. The pitch perfect moments of quiet ironic humor, all the unspoken bits with the relationships of these characters, and the great cinematography that makes it all seem timeless make this seem like a movie that's been around forever. There is one scene that stands out as being completely out of place though. Anybody want to guess what that is? I've decided to just ignore it.
You liked this more than I did. Ever since he shot John Wayne, I have a low Bruce Dern tolerance. Here he is pretty one-note crotchedy, and that gets old after a while. I know B & W can work well, but I would have liked to see the midwest in color. I did really like the wife, and Saul from "Breaking Bad". There just wasn't enough here to give it more than a 15.
ReplyDeleteI liked Bruce Dern, but now that I've seen Tom Hanks in both of his 2013 movies, Dern's probably the one I'd drop out of the Best Actor noms to get him in there.
ReplyDeleteLoved the black and white though.