mcadaman81 Reviews

Nebraska (2013)

The movie is about an old man, Who receives a letter that says he has won a million dollars and must go to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect it.

[9/10 · 8 May 2016]

This film really made an impression on me. The movie is fantastically directed by Alexander Payne who is renowned and has been praised for the movies Sideways and The Descendants amongst others. He brings a different style to the directing role through his inspired shots of the wide and stagnant Nebraskan country side and does a fantastic job at emphasising isolation, not just geographically but emotionally within the characters. His interesting take and choice of filming the movie in black and white, shows something about his vision of what seems to be the characters understanding of each other, but as the movie progresses we see that is not true at all. He has truly hit the spot direction wise and I am very interested to see what he will be coming up with in the future. The Camera work in this movie is astonishing. We have a fantastic variation of shots in this movie. We have shots varying from these long in frame, and duration, shots of the elegant Nebraskan farming scenery, to these close up and medium shots of David and Woody (and all the characters) that show us a very raw and corrupted relationship between a father and son. Through the arrangement of these shots we gain a rare insight and experience into this family's distraught life and gives the title 'Road Trip Movies' a new name. The juxtaposition of acting we get in this movie between Will Forte and Bruce Dern is inspired. The ex-alcoholic father and the son who will do almost anything to not turn out like him. We get a real insight into the mindset of all the characters in this movie through the incredible acting of not only Will Forte and Bruce Dern but the entire supporting cast as well. Through this movie we also get a fantastic contrast in the acting ability of Will Forte, with his interesting performance as the jerk cop in the comedy movie, 'The Watch,' and his stunning portrayal of a quirky yet gentle souled man who only wants to do right by his father and the rest of his family. I was truly taken in by this movie and really understand why Bruce Dern was given the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and believed him, and the movie in general, deserved more credit than it was given at the Academy Awards. Overall though, if you are interested in semi-art type movies, you should enjoy this quite thoroughly, but if you are more of a blockbuster film type person I would suggest you look for something else unless you are willing to take a little walk on the wild side. Great movie though 9/10