Nebraska

2013 "Life's not about winning or losing. It's about how you get there in the end."
7.7| 1h55m| R| en| More Info
Released: 15 November 2013 Released
Producted By: Paramount Vantage
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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An aging, booze-addled father takes a trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim what he believes to be a million-dollar sweepstakes prize.

Genre

Adventure, Drama

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Nebraska (2013) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Alexander Payne

Production Companies

Paramount Vantage

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Nebraska Audience Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
ThiefHott Too much of everything
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
merelyaninnuendo NebraskaThe predictability is obvious hance a smart choice by the writer (Bob Nelson) to decide on focusing on projecting the crucial necessity of the characters that the audience shifts their answers of the questions raised in here. Alexander Payne is as always, no short on execution but the editing part surely interferes a lot and itches till the end. Bruce Dern and Will Forte are amazing in their parallel roles but the highlight of it is June Squibb who is flat out hilarious in her supporting role. Nebraska is your typical road movie that goes as anticipated but still works like a charm with a soul reason that lies with in the stellar performance by the cast.
framptonhollis Although this movie seems to have been mostly forgotten about and only remembered for being one of "those Oscar movies", I think that it deserves to be talked about for years. This is one of the funniest and smartest films of the 21st century so far, and is filled top to bottom with the highest technical, performance, and writing achievements possible. It is a masterpiece of comedy and drama, of character and story. The screenplay is brilliant and funny as hell, filled with a sharp wit rarely seen in most comedies these days. The film is also quite emotionally intense at times, due to the simple premise leading to a lot of complicated conflicts-and the ending, which I will not spoil, is surprisingly heartwarming and satisfying.Bruce Dern is simply fantastic in this movie, playing a confused old klutz that receives a letter claiming that he has won a million dollars. He plays his complex character with much emotion and good humor. Even better is June Squibb as his ferocious and funny wife, who packs into her role all of the needed elements of anger and hilarity and more. Will Forte also does a great job, playing the most sane character in the film, as the old man's son, who is sucked into this mess, and whose brother, played by Bob Odenkirk, is comically mean spirited.Perhaps my description of these characters sounds mocking, but I must admit that I felt deep sympathy for each of them. This film does not just take the easy way out and laugh at its characters for 110 minutes, it also gives them time to show their better sides. Dern may seem like a ridiculous, silly old man with a drinking problem, but he is actually likable and I rooted for him strongly. His wife mainly spends her time yelling at him, but there is one brief moment of truth that exposes her love for him. While neither of them admit that they love each other, the love is still obviously there. Yet another masterfully complex and beautiful element to this masterfully complex and beautiful film!
oOoBarracuda The real travesty of living in middle America is the frequency with which wonderful films that I greatly look forward to never make it to this section of the planet. The 2013 film by Alexander Payne, Nebraska was one such film. Nebraska was the film I anticipated seeing most in 2013, never made it to any theaters near me. Somehow, I hadn't seen it in the three years since it was released either, so I was greatly looking forward to seeing this. I purchased Nebraska before seeing it because I was that confident that I would love it, and I was right. Starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, and June Squibb, Nebraska explores the divide between parents and their children, aging, and the expectations one has for themselves vs. the reality that happens to them as a father and son make a journey together to retrieve what the father believes to be a sweepstakes prize. A deeply moving examination of the life issues we all must face, Nebraska is an absolute treasure of a film.Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is a simple man who listens to his wife and is trusting to a fault. Always believing everything he is told, Woody is the perfect victim for a mailing scam claiming that he has won 1 million dollars. Woody believes that the letter wouldn't have been sent out unless he won, so he enlists his son to take him on a multi- state journey to collect his winnings. David Grant (Will Forte), Woody's son, knows the letter is a scam, and his father hasn't won any money, yet, feels compelled to take time off work from his job as an electronics salesman to drive his elderly father on his quest. David sees that the letter has given his father a desperately needed purpose, and refuses to completely quash his ambition. Woody is an alcoholic, crushed by what his life has become, in a loveless marriage with his wife, Kate (June Squibb), a quiet man who is simply going through the motions at the end of his life. Throughout the journey, David gets to see several aspects of his father's early life including his childhood home, the graves of his family, even a former lover. David learns a great deal about the father that he and his brother have been battling over whether or not to put him in a nursing home. Most importantly, David learns that his nearly mute father only wants to collect the money so that he has something to leave his children after he dies; something to prove that his life was worthwhile, and he took care of those he loved. What began as a trip in which David thought he would be teaching his father about the realities of mailing scams, turns out to be a journey in which David learned more about his father than he could have ever imagined.I admit, I easily cry at movies. Nebraska pulls at the heartstrings of even the coldest person, due to the fact that the issues delved into within the film are ones that everyone will deal with at one time or another. Nebraska explores aging, small town mentality, the reality of the end of life, and the disappointment when expectations do not become reality. Woody was nearing the end of his life and his sons and wife were arguing over whether or not to put him into nursing home care. David didn't believe that he needed to be in a nursing home, he just needed attention and understanding. The divide between parents and their adult children is deeply explored. Adult children, no longer dependent upon their parents, oftentimes forget the sacrifices their parents made for them and become so engrossed in their own lives, that they refuse the responsibility of caring for their parents at the end of their lives. Alexander Payne does a brilliant job of the mentality of small-town inhabitants that know the same people and the same walls their entire lives and are easily fooled by such illusions of grandeur like Woody and his million dollars. As David and Woody's journey progresses, we see the dreams and expectations of each major character in the story, and how vastly different those dreams are from the reality that they created. This divide was illustrated in such a painfully exceptional way it could not be forgotten. It seems as though, many people in the town and some others in the film were not professional actors, and if that is the case, it was a brilliant decision on the part of Alexander Payne, adding more realism to the film. Bruce Dern, however, plays his part exceptionally, completely stealing every scene he is in, whether he speaks or not. Much of Dern's acting is physical, a head nod or a certain way he carries himself creating a physical performance like few I've seen before. Dern was greatly overlooked by the Academy by not being awarded the top prize for his portrayal of Woody Grant. Nebraska is a perfect film, shot in Black and White as the story absolutely necessitates, gripping to the end and explorative like no other.
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