Thursday, February 27, 2014

Nebraska - a mini-review

Finally saw Nebraska, which is an austere, though surprisingly funny, road trip about fathers and sons. Not much happens and what happens is ridiculously low-stakes, and every character looks like they stepped out of a lost Grant Wood painting, (American Gothic). It all actually works though without much catharsis. Bruce Dern has his one-note stubborn old-guy shtick down pat, but Will Forte plays it straight and graduates from sketch comedy--even in the scenes that are almost sketch comedy as filmed by Fellini. In the end, there's less here than meets the eye but it entertained me far more than Payne's past movies, ("About Schmidt" - god help me) have. Could be because someone else wrote the screenplay.

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