"He just believes what people tell him." "That's too bad."
I understand why Alexander Payne fans have been lukewarm on this movie, while Payne skeptics have embraced it. There's the usual Payne canvas of strip-mall banality and submerged existential horror, but Nebraska lacks the exaggerated comedic grotesquerie that makes his films either rancid or hilarious, depending on the viewer.
It's definitely the right choice. Nebraska covers a lot of the same thematic territory as About Schmidt; the horrors of aging, the inescapably of failure, and the attraction and repulsion of family. A broader take would have felt like a pale retread. Instead, Nebraska, by being more astringent and more subdued, lets the performances and searing observations shine, and feels like…