Nebraska film review

Robyn Matthews Film studies review 11/06/2014

Nebraska

Nebraska is a black and white directed by Alexander Payne, circling an old family man (Woody) and his obsession with winning the lottery after he receives a phoney “winning ticket”. His concerned son agrees to take him to Nebraska from Montana to prevent this obsession spiralling out of control and ending tragically. This is a social realism drama with comedic assets embedded in the script it explores themes of love, hate, jealousy, forgiveness and insanity.

The shooting of this film was done with digital cameras and anamorphic lenses to create the black and white affect. Personally I despise black and white films as they don’t create a vivid image in my head of the characters and setting, however, after dreading the beginning when I had noticed this, it became clear to me that this affect emphasised the man’s condition as he couldn’t see the full picture and other people’s opinions. It created a pleasant use of the imagination and allowed the viewer to fill in the missing details such as, what they were wearing, how rich they would determine by the amount of golden accessories and minor details such as them.

June Squibb the wife of Woody, Kate Grant was one of the key characters in the film for me personally. Her dark humour and cruelty towards woody lightened the mood and reassured the viewer that this was a down to earth, relatable film which expressed common problems many older people go through.

David Grant: How did she die?

Kate Grant: Saw herself in the mirror one day.

This is a key example of June’s characters witty humour as she is always expressing herself openly and cracking jokes to lighten the mood.

I deeply enjoyed this film and would definitely recommend it to people who have an open mind to feel good movies that explore common issue in families throughout the world. However I do feel that this is not every body’s cup of tea and those who don’t pay attention to the minor details directors and writer put into their movies would not enjoy this as they wouldn’t fully understand the deeper meaning.