My Review: Nebraska (8/10)

"I ain't fiddlin' with no cow titties. I'm a city girl!"

Alexander Payne has directed yet another powerful film by creating real characters going through real life situations in a very poignant and hilarious way. Nebraska is one of those films that manages to balance serious subject matters with light touches of comedy by creating characters from Midwestern American society that feel authentic and are easy to relate to. It's a heartwarming film with some very emotional dramatic moments that are taken to another level thanks to some strong performances. Bruce Dern stars in the role of a lifetime and his performance is so natural that he completely owns this movie and never misses a note. It's a difficult performance because due to the subject matter one wrong note could've made the audience feel like it was being manipulated, but it never does and Payne manages to direct his actors in such a way that I never felt he was being condescending. Will Forte also delivers in a strong dramatic role sharing great chemistry with Dern and making this a strong father-son road trip story that stands out above other such films. June Squibb is hilarious as well and she brings some comedic relief during some of the emotional or more dramatic moments. This road trip film is gorgeously captured through black and white cinematography giving the film a more nostalgic tone towards the past. It's a well balanced road film about old age and family, and one of Payne's best films (I'd rate it second, behind Sideways my personal favorite of his). This sad and tender film takes us through a journey that may be slow at times, but Payne makes sure he rewards his audience for sticking with it.

Written by Bob Nelson, Nebraska is an original screenplay centering on a Midwestern American family from Billings, Montana. The father, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) who's in his late 70's and approaching dementia, is convinced that he has won a million dollars after receiving a newsletter, but everyone else in his family knows it's just one of those scams for people to purchase magazine subscriptions. His wife Kate (June Squibb) can't convince him otherwise and neither can their two adult sons, Ross (Bob Odenkirk) and David (Will Forte). Since no one will take him to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his million dollars he tries to walk there. Finally David decides to call in sick at the electronic store where he works at and take his father to Lincoln. He believes this is a good opportunity to get closer to his estranged father who has always had alcohol related problems and been a very quiet person. Together they embark on the journey, but along the way they agree to stop by the small town in central Nebraska where his father grew up and meet up with their relatives. The trip becomes an illuminating experience for David who begins to understand some of the things that made his father the way he is, and through this unexpected journey the two grow closer together.

This could've been yet another forgettable father and son film, but thanks to Payne's unique style and deadpan humor along with Dern and Forte's powerful performances Nebraska is a beautiful and touching film. The tone of the film balances really well the family dynamics with the longing and yearning for the past mixed with the discomfort and emptiness of the present. Dern portrays this character so well and the final scenes he shares with Forte are touching and tender. It's a genuine story and in my opinion it's an improvement from Payne's previous film, The Descendants, which I enjoyed a little less than this one. Nebraksa is a very revealing film and I loved the way the father son relationship was slowly built without ever being manipulative.

My Review: Election (6/10)

"You see, you can't interfere with destiny, that's why it's destiny. And if you try to interfere, the same thing's just going to happen anyway, and you'll just suffer."

Election is Alexander Payne's sophomore film and many consider it to be his best work since it uses some slick and witty dark humor to make a satirical political comedy. Payne manages to mix this political satire with High School life by using the school elections as a metaphor for American politics and in doing so the film is rather successful. Just like that famous short essay written by Robert Fulghum "All I Really Need to Learn I Learned in Kindergarten" where he claims that if we sticked to the basic rules we learned in kindergarten we would live in a better society, here Payne compares politics to High School elections and shows how corrupt the system actually can be and how selfish these people are. The dirty campaigns all begin in High School and these people seem to be doing things for themselves rather than to help others. I think this is what works best in Payne's ambitious film. I enjoyed the scenes that took place in the High School, but when Payne takes us out of the school to the characters homes it kind of loses its magic. I didn't care very much about their lives outside of school. One of the things that Payne does best is create interesting characters and that is why the actors give engaging performances because they have a lot to work with. These characters are usually dislikable, but somehow we end up routing for one despite all their flaws. Reese Witherspoon's character is so annoying that we actually want Matthew Broderick to succeed despite all the immoral acts he is committing. They both give strong performances, although compared to other Payne films I thought they were the weakest characters. Sideways still remains as my favorite Payne film, but his work here obviously opened a lot of doors for him. Payne is one of the best when it comes to creating midwestern American characters.

Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) is a very driven and ambitious student from Carver High who has high goals and expectations for her life. One of those goals is becoming class president, and despite the fact that she is running unopposed she still dedicates most of her time in school to achieving this. Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is one of her teachers, but he doesn't like her very much because she had an affair with his best friend, Dave (Mark Harelik), a former teacher who got expelled from school when the director found out. Jim, who is married to Diane (Molly Hagan), decides to complicate things for Tracy by convincing the school jock, Paul (Chris Klein) to enter the race. When Paul's lesbian sister, Tammy (Jessica Campbell), discovers that he is campaigning for class president, she decides to run as well to pay him back for dating a former love interest of hers. And soon what seemed to be a simple election becomes chaotic as the dirty campaign begins. Will Tracy achieve her goal or will her teacher crash her dream?

The film has each character describe the events that are going on through voice over narrations. At first I thought it didn't work very well as it took me out of the story, but then I understood what Payne was trying to achieve (or at least this is what it transmitted to me), by letting his characters narrate what they were experiencing we understood what they were trying to achieve, the way they wanted others to see them, but of course their actions were completely opposite to the way they wanted to be perceived. It was like their own mask, because they were nothing like what they wanted to be perceived as (take Jim for example who considered himself a likable and influential teacher, but really he ends up being quite the opposite). The characters in this film are very well developed, but they were probably my least favorite from a Payne film. I wasn't a big fan of Chris Klein's performance, but the rest of the cast was pretty strong. The dark humor was witty, but it just wasn't my cup of tea and didn't care for any of the characters. Election may be one of Payne's most ambitious and satirical films, but I would rather sit through Sideways a hundred times than seeing these characters again.

My Review: The Descendants (7/10)

¨Goodbye, Elizabeth. Goodbye, my love, my friend, my pain, my joy. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.¨

The Descendants is a good film, but I was expecting much more from this dramedy written and directed by Alexander Payne, the man who brought us About Schmidt and Sideways. I was a huge fan of Sideways, and it had been over seven years since Payne directed another movie so I was highly anticipating this one staring George Clooney. Clooney is a great actor and this role seemed perfect for him. After hearing so much buzz from critics and the Academy about this picture, director, and performance from Clooney, my expectations grew even higher. Perhaps it was this overhype that left me a sensation of incompleteness after finishing watching The Descendants. The story was funny, but the characters weren’t as interesting as most of Payne`s characters were in other movies, and Clooney was great in the lead role, but far from being Oscar worthy in my opinion since I`ve seen far more better performances from other actors this year. Clooney is a natural and he made his performance actually seem real natural, but I thought relatively unknown Shailene Woodley stole several scenes from him. It`s hard not to like someone like Clooney with his charm and charisma, but I don’t think that`s enough to honor him with another Oscar. He did have one strong scene when he was giving his final farewell speech to his dying wife so don’t get me wrong, I did like his performance, I just expected so much more and perhaps those expectations affected my overall perception of the movie. I guess The Descendants actually had me at Payne, Clooney, and Hawaii. It was not as good as I expected, but it was still a lot of fun.

George Clooney plays a wealthy land owner from Hawaii named Matt King. His descendants used to be sort of rulers of a big island in Hawaii and therefore he and his family owned most of the land. They are receiving millionairy offers from several businessmen who want to buy the land and build beautiful resorts or shopping malls. Matt however has decided to make a living as a lawyer and spends most of his time in his office. Clooney tells us all this in voice over as he narrates how his wife had a boating accident and has been lying in a coma for the past three weeks. Meanwhile, he has no idea how to raise his nine year old daughter, Scottie (Amara Miller), who has been causing all sorts of trouble in school and at home. Matt decides it`s time to go bring his seventeen year old daughter, Alexandra (Shailene Woodley), back from boarding school to help him out with Scottie. Alexandra had a big fight with her mother before the boating accident and is kind of in a rebellious stage, but decides to help out her father after realizing that her mom is not going to get better. Alexandra reveals to Matt that the reason she was fighting with her mom was because she was having an affair with another man, who they later find out to be a real estate businessman named Brian (Matthew Lillard). Alexandra and Matt decide they should find a way to confront him and so they travel to another Hawaiian island where Brian is located. Alexandra brings along one of her friends named Sid (Nick Krause) who practically follows them around everywhere not helping out much, although Matt does seek for their advice most of the time.

Payne`s film does work solidly as a decent drama with sufficient comedy to lighten up the dark subject matter of the movie. The characters are interesting, although some of the secondary characters are pretty much one dimensional. It`s still interesting to see how Clooney`s character really doesn’t know what he`s doing most of the time. He is lost, and looks for his daughter`s advice quite often. Most of the comedy comes from Payne`s script which is funny as usual, although the cast also help out a lot. I guess since I`m from South America I`m used to seeing a lot of films dealing with society and family dramas since pretty much every Latin film deals with these subject matters, so it wasn’t something new for me. Hollywood on the other hand isn’t really known for creating these quality dramas so I can see how some of the critics were blown away by this film. But if you consider other foreign films, like this year`s Iranian drama A Separation, then you will notice the difference. What Payne does best however is add some comedy into the mix and it always works well for him, although this time I thought it wasn’t up to par with his previous film Sideways. The Descendants is a good movie, with some strong performances, but I`d rather watch his previous films before watching this again. The one good thing going for this movie is the beautiful scenery set in Hawaii. I recommend this film, but just don’t go into it as hyped as I was because you could be disappointed.

 

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