Movie Review: "Nebraska"

We watched the Academy Award nominated movie "Nebraska" last night, and I'll cut right to the chase and not mince any words.

I loved this movie.  Loved it.

Directed by Alexander Payne ("Sideways", "The Descendants"), and staring Bruce Dern and Will Forte, this is a movie that I can see myself watching again and again (very much like Payne's "Sideways").  It is the story of an elderly man, Woody Grant (Dern), who thinks he has won $1 million in a magazine sweepstakes, and he is determined to set off from his home in Billings, Montana and travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect it.

Of course, he really hasn't won a million dollars, he is an elderly, alcoholic bordering on dementia, and, all in all, not that nice a guy.  His wife calls him a "dumb cluck" and to his two adult sons, he wasn't much of a father as they grew up.  In any event, the younger son, David (Forte), sets off on a road trip to Nebraska to get away from his own troubles, give his mother a break, and convince the old man that he's being scammed.

Along the way, they spend time with some relatives and meet up with some of Woody's old friends, and make, as people always do in such movies, lots of discoveries about themselves and their history.

"Nebraska" is filmed in black and white, which is perfect for the mood of this movie.  It captures the vastness and emptiness of small town America in Montana and Nebraska.  The characters. the main ones and the peripheral ones, are drawn amazingly well.  Even the music that is the background score is perfect.  The movie makes you laugh and cry, and it really makes you feel that you are out there on the Great Plains with Woody and David. 

Bruce Dern, at the age of 77, is getting a lot of buzz for the Best Actor Academy Award.  Not sure if he will win, but this is the kind of "lifetime achievement" award that the Academy often bestows on older actors.  Not sure if he's going to win it, but I wouldn't argue against it if he did.

"Nebraska" has a bunch of big time Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Dern for Best Actor, Payne for Best Director, and Bob Nelson for Best Original Screenplay.  It is the sixth of the nine Best Picture nominees that I have seen, and if given a vote, I do believe that I would give this my vote over my previous Number One, "American Hustle".

Anyway, see "Nebraska".  It is a terrific movie.