#44 "Nebraska" (2013)

Alexander Payne is that rare filmmaker who knows the Mid West and cares about the region enough to treat it as a truly worthy subject of creative exploration, rather than caricature, dismissal or sentimentalization. His work may be painfully honest and awkwardly funny, but it is never patronizing or schmaltzy.

"Nebraska" is certainly not a feel-good, rose-tinted salute to the Heartland. Nor is it a piece of self-serious miserabilism, even as it shows in authentic detail the lives of people who really are going nowhere, hanging on to past glory or an imagined future as their way of coping with the daily grind of a flat existence in a very flat land.

"Nebraska" is shot in black-and-white cinemascope - one of my favorite shooting styles for many of my favorite movies and a very clear statement of intent in 2013. But the intention here is not to evoke nostalgia for the days when black-and-white was Hollywood's bread and butter, nor is it used to create a kind of stylized beauty. Nope, this is just a grey world - one whose prairie inhabitants have no real color in their lives.

Woody Grant (played to perfection by Bruce Dern), the kind of grumpy old man who makes other grumpy old men look like loveable codgers, copes with the grey in his life in two ways. The first is the age-old remedy for depression - heavy drinking, but it's Woody's second strategy for finding purpose and meaning in his life that drives the film.

Woody has been sent a Publisher's Clearing House-style letter informing him that he has won a million dollars (terms and conditions may apply etc. etc.). Woody intends to collect his million, even though he has no real idea what he'd do with it beyond buying a new truck. And so, to his family's aggravation, Woody has started walking along the highway to claim his prize in person at the magazine vendors headquarters in Nebraska. In fact, Woody has been picked up on the side of the highway so many times that his younger son David (a wonderfully hang-dog Will Forte) decides that the best way to get his Dad to stop his regular elopements by taking him to Nebraska himself. Maybe then Woody will let go of his determination to collect the money he hasn't won - and after all, it's only a two day drive from their home in Billings, Montana...

While this could be the set-up to a great 10-minute short film, an obligatory stop with family in their old hometown along the way brings us deeper into Woody's past life, dragging up old friendships, enmities and untold secrets along the way. The running joke through all of this is that Woody's estranged family, old business partner and in fact all of his hometown really believe that Woody has hit the big-time, creating a bubble of envy, resentment and admiration David tries hard to deflate, but that his father basks in. Soon a whole number of old acquaintances start remembering that Woody owes them a whole lot of money and just want him to do the right thing by paying it back to them immediately.

All of which leads up to what I think may be the funniest shot in any movie in 2013: David's no-account cousin and his friend, big fat dudes with a serious lack of both ethics and smarts, waiting outside of Woody's old local bar, wearing balaclavas and pressed tight against the wall as if they are master ninjas who just happen to have beer bellies larger than a third trimester pregnancy.

"Nebraska" is a movie that does not smooth any of the rough edges of its characters, particularly Woody, who is bitter, selfish and often quite out of it. And yet, it's often a very funny film and even poignant in its own way. What I liked most about this film is actually its ending, often the hardest part to stick in a comedic drama (I'm trying not to say 'dramedy' - dear Lord, I am trying...). Payne wraps up "Nebraska" in a way that is surprisingly sweet, satisfying and absolutely true to his world and its characters.

There's no deus ex machina, no 180º character reversals and no easy resolutions to the problems of old age, regret and decades of familial dysfunction, but there is the possibility of real kindness and respect for another's humanity. And that can be more satisfying and genuinely touching than any studio-approved ending.