Nebraska (2013)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A Masterpiece!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Blistering performances.

Some people live their life, while others just spend their whole life existing. Existing to fulfill the responsibilities. Existing so that others associated to them can live their life. And while existing, the thing they are deprived from is their pie of life! Here is the story of Woody Grant, an old man now, who was deprived of his job, the job he was passionate for. Was deprived of love, the love he missed throughout his years of life. And some small things, he wanted to have but he never was able to get. Nebraska is the story of the journey that was undertaken by Woody and his son David from Billings to Lincoln to claim a prize money.But let me tell you, the journey was not about the prize money or nor to the Lincoln. Here the distance that needed to be travelled was the distance to the hearts of both the person's. When the journey started David knew Woody as his father and while heading towards their home he (David) understood him (Woody) well as a person. What Woody wanted was not the million dollar prize money. Instead, he just wanted to be happy! If you are rich, society will befriend you and will take advantage of you. This is perfectly shown in the movie.Also, the other thing that I learned through this movie is about the treatment that old age people needs. They only need their family to understand them, spend some time with them and to emotionally support them. When people grow old they become stubborn and hard to be dealt with. And David as a son performed perfectly what an ideal son should have done.The music by Mark Orton was so much pensive that it will keep you emotionally attached to the characters and the story throught the movie.I will definetly suggest this movie to everyone. This film will change your perspective towards your father and also your life in a very positive way.

The review preceding these words is excellent. I just like to add that Alexander Payne is a great filmmaker and he did it again with Nebraska. Besides the talent he shows great respect for his work and expresses it with passion and rigor although the tone is slow. It is a wonderful unique story even it is full of notions about life and movie-making.

I have never heard of this film or anyone involved in it, when I finished it I din't understand why because this film is amazingly done, one of the few that has the honor of calling it a motion picture, a form of art, that is what it is: art. Strating with a cinematography that not anyone dares to use, and in here work with a sense of pure beauty. Then the film edition was one of the things that impressed me the most, it changes of scene so delicate and profound just perfectly to the screenplay. The actors with amazing performances, just when I thought they can't do better, they just overcome my expectations and did it ten times more amazing. This type of screenplay is the one of my favorites, from a story that some people think is boring, for me are the ones where you can take the best of it; starting with something simple, that seemed hopeless, but then with the characters that also lived simple lives, but each one of them had their virtues and ideas to live for, a history behind them. I also loved the reality in the film. The dialogue they used is like gold transformed into words. and then the music that showed tranquility in a place where a lot of negative but not terrible things happened. This are the kind of films that should last forever.If you like classics this one will fill you with joy. I loved every second and minute of it.

Watching a film like Nebraska makes me wonder what exactly is the purpose of watching a movie? Well, for me, here are a few of the possible reasons and some of the feelings I expect to experience when I watch a good film.• Entertainment • Amusement, laughs • Excitement, thrills • Shock, fear, horror • Personal edification & knowledge • Enrichment, inspiration • Happiness • Sadness • Sentiment and nostalgia. • So where does Nebraska fit in? I confess that for about the first 20 minutes, I found the subject matter so dire that I almost gave up, and the only reason I kept going was because I had undertaken to write a small review, which I could hardly do if I didn't watch it. Thankfully, it did start to get a little better and in the end I was able to watch the remainder without resorting to 'fast forward' or the 'off' button.So what was so bad about it? (I hear you asking.) Let me start by saying what was good about it. It was well acted; it was beautifully filmed, (within seconds you forget that the film is in black and white, as the cinematography is so riveting); it was well- written; it was well directed; and, very occasionally, it was mildly amusing.So what was wrong with it then??? It was so effing depressing! It is a road movie about a senile, alcoholic old man thinks he has won a million dollars when he receives a scam magazine subscription flyer and is determined to travel nearly a thousand miles across America to claim his prize. It could have been written with a fair measure of humour, but sadly, it wasn't. The old man is a very unpleasant, cantankerous old bastard, and by all accounts he always had been – according to his two, not particularly charismatic sons. His wife clearly hates him and can't wait to have him put in a home. His youngest son has a dead- end job selling home hi-fi systems to people who don't want them in the middle of a recession and just about everyone in the movie appears to be in financial straits. The old man's son is somehow persuaded to drive his senile father across country to claim his non-existent prize and on the way they stop at the old man's hometown where his long forgotten friends and some of his relatives still live.While there, he stays with more depressing members of his family who have two dreadful sons who believe his silly 'millionaire' story and try to rob him of the winning ticket. Other relatives come to visit and fights break out as they and other old friends decide it is payback time and demand some of the winnings from the senile old man. But you don't really feel sorry for the senile old bastard as he has absolutely zero redeeming qualities. You just don't care.I could go on and on but it's too depressing to write about.The director is Alexander Payne who directed the wonderful film, 'About Schmidt' – which is another road movie that starred the brilliant Jack Nicholson in his prime.'About Schmidt' was as wonderful as 'Nebraska' is dire. Nebraska is mid-numbingly brutal on the senses. It has no uplifting moments, not even near the end, when the son puts his father behind the wheel of a truck to give him a few moments of rare happiness.Sure, there are occasional moments of mild amusement in the second part of the movie, such as when the two sons, in an effort to repay a supposed grudge of 30 years standing, steal an ancient compressor from the wrong, (run-down) farm, but believe me, these moments are few are far between and they really ain't that funny. Indeed, everyone in the movie seems to bear grudges against everyone else and there is total absence of anything approaching goodwill or love – or even common to garden pity. The overriding message of this movie is just how depressingly awful are some of these small-towns that criss-cross the great American landscape, and how miserable and impoverished are its inhabitants – especially when they grow old and start to lose their marbles.The professional reviewers are just purring about this movie and they all think it is one of the finest films of the year. Even most of the user reviewers on IMDb are positively glowing and it gets an incredible star rating of 7.2 out of 10. I suppose if you want to spend just under two hours being depressed by alcoholism, senility, poverty, slimy fast-food outlets, dusty, cheerless bars, couch- potato TV addicts, unfulfilled lives, greed, jealousy, bigoted ignorance and all the horrors of grim, Hicksville America, then this is the movie for you.It's kind of strange, as Americans seem to really like this movie, yet to me, if it's accurate, it's an embarrassing indictment on small town America. For the record, back in 2,000, I drove right across 'Hicksville America' and what I found was a million miles removed from the towns and folk as portrayed in the movie, Nebraska. I find it difficult to believe that such communities with such unremittingly grim inhabitants exist in quite the way depicted in this movie.But Director Payne was actually born in Nebraska, (of Greek descent) so maybe he knows better than me…..