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Created Dec 11, 2013 11:46PM PST • Edited Feb 06, 2021 06:21AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Nebraska is a triumph of character development and acting. Good thing, since the plot only goes from A to B – or from Billings to Omaha, which is further than A is from B, but not by much.

   It dyspeptically portrays Middle-American lives lived as nasty and brutish. Short too? No, long and sad.

   Alexander Payne and Bob Nelson, director and writer, are from Nebraska and South Dakota respectively. They know the flat terrain and stolid people well. One senses they don’t much like them. In fairness, urban drama is often similarly dyspeptic, yet Nebraska is sneakily mean spirited, just this side of a Borat skit.

   Which is not to say it isn’t brilliant, with a late set of grace notes that are deeply touching. The son becoming Father to his Dad nailed me in the heart with a bolt of filial warmth that exceeded even the tender end stages of Robot & Frank, the recent benchmark for Baby Boomer reverse family drama.

   Alexander Payne movies can appear unpromising in advance, yet end up brilliant and affecting. He always comes through, albeit sometimes Sideways. Nebraska is in that tradition, here bolstered by Bruce Dern and June Squibb’s profound star turns. Nasty and brutish is rarely portrayed so sweetly and affectingly.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   Bruce Dern’s career of self-absorbed odd balls now has a capper in Woody Grant, an aged and addled alcoholic who gets taken in by a phony prize. His half-smile late in the movie is masterful movie acting, especially coming on top of a series of understated scenes played to laconic perfection.

   June Squibb is even more impressive as his long-suffering wife, a woman who doesn’t suffer fools at all. Her performance – full of rants and put-downs that are jaw-dropping classics – deserves an Oscar nod.

   Will Forte impresses as their younger son, an indecisive pleaser. However, one can’t help but think that he’s just a click away from SNL.

   Supporters

   • Bob Odenkirk strikes just the right tone as the older son.
   • Mary Louise Wilson & Rance Howard are suitably laconic as their Aunt and Uncle. It’s always good to see Ron Howard’s dad in a movie.
   • Tim Driscoll & Devin Ratray are white trash hoots as their cousins.
   • Noah Matteo jumps off screen in a cameo as a Cub Photographer.
   • Stacy Keach wields his considerable star power as a longtime jerk.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

   Dern is Perfect, Forte is Very Good.

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

   June Squibb

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Alexander Payne and Bob Nelson’s film is essentially a slow reveal of familial characters: their backstories, weaknesses and relationships. It does this brilliantly if often harshly. Interestingly, it reveals the little old Mother to be the toughest of them all, a fact that becomes apparent by the middle of the film.

    Nebraska has become Left Wing artistic shorthand for downbeat America, whitebread style. First Springsteen’s bleak opus, made at the height of his superstardom, and now this bleakly funny depiction of colorful people, made without a speck of visual color. It’s a colorless depiction of colorful people.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0

    The B&W visuals give the often tacky settings a timelessness that works well for the story.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.9

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 1.6

19. Rudeness Profane 3.0

21. Reality

    Glib 1.2

    Alexander Payne grew up in Omaha, where his parents had a Greek restaurant. The family name was originally Papadopoulos. Think he’s still bitter about the prevailing whitebread culture?

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.5

23. Biological Natural 1.0

24. Physical Natural 1.0