John Brooks Alexander Payne's style is one of subtlety, and non-said. His films aren't always masterpieces of the highest order, but even when they tell a fairly ordinary story, as they so often do really, they manage to nonetheless be original, pleasant to watch despite their length and reach for a cinematic quality rarely found in other films. And always, an emphasis on relationship, in a poignantly realistic style.This one here is no different. It's just a typical Payne film really. It's got that same critical humor, puts particular types of individuals in a caricatured light however without ever being exaggerated; it is a long road to a resolve and ending that makes perfect sense, without ever being gratuitous and obvious like so many Hollywood/American films do.Not the film of the decade, but good stuff. 7.5/10

juoliver-70482 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.

mcadaman81 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

Mobithailand 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…..