An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.
It’s probably Payne’s most poetic work yet, a quiet, subtle study of the highs and lows of family life.
Nebraska is a tough, tender film, which unfolds in unexpected ways.
Payne manages to bring the film to a close on a touching note with a neatly judged ending, but the problems found elsewhere make this one of his least satisfying films.
A charming road movie that develops into a full-blown study of life and roots, offering a beautiful insight into the way families migrate and change.
A bigger, deeper film that it initially appears. Dern's performance is a delight.
The result is droll and poignant, if a little overextended.
Thank heaven for Dern. As the only performer acting from the inside outwards, he suggests there is life before, during and even – see the last, best scene, a virtual Dern solo – after plot death.
Nebraska is a beautifully made film: an extended epiphany of sadness and charm.
A pitch-perfect performance from Dern graces Alexander Payne’s latest roadmovie – another bittersweet meditation on the sad, comic futility of life.
The reason the film has such an emotional kick is precisely because its style is so pared down and austere.
In fact, it is the best film yet by one of US cinema's most perceptive and sympathetic observers of human behaviour.
The real pleasures, however, are in the performances, with the septuagenarian Dern turning in his best work since Silent Running.
Working in black-and-white for the first time Payne serves up a plaintive, elegiac, exploration of his characters’ lives that’s largely free from his usual condescending snarkiness.
Alexander Payne interview: 'Nebraska is just where I'm from'
'Hey, can I give you a ride?' Director Alexander Payne gets back to road movies with 'Nebraska'
General release. Check local listings for show times.