Nebraska

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Given an option, I probably would have watched something else. But I ran out of choices on the flight. You can only watch the Avengers so many times.

Basically Woody, played by Bruce Dern, thinks he has won a million dollars in a Magazine Sales pitch. His son, played by Wil Forte, decides to play along with his father's quest to go to Nebraska and collect his winnings. The film wallows in everyone's depressing existence. Woody is an alcoholic. Forte has never succeeded in his life. Nebraska has all the depressing themes that screams American Independent Cinema.

Eventually Woody has to face the truth he doesn't win the million and all the adoration about his new status goes away as the truth comes out that he has been duped. There is a little glimmer of light at the end as Forte tries to help his father out.

No sword fights. No color.

[Drunk Monk]

...it was really Will Forte who does all the heavy lifting. Few SNL grads ever manage to make dramatic films (I can only think of Bill Murray in Razor's Edge). Dern just walked around like a lost drunk with Alzheimer's. How hard is that?

It really didn't need to be B&W. That added only a little to the depressing mood but not as much as it should have. Millennial directors just can't handle B&W well. June Squibb was funny. I've got a soft spot for son-&-aging-father flix just like Ii do for father-daughter flix, but this one failed to move me.

I did like the chunky cousins, mostly because one was named Cole and looked sorta like Ross in his youth.

I watched the first half without sound, just subtitles. We only have one pair of headphones and T was asleep. Then S got bored and went to bed, so I got to hear the rest. The sound didn't add much. Overall, it was a sweet quiet film, but overrated.

[El Dingo]

I liked this a lot. Kind of "The Straight Story" with extras. There are some movies where the plot moves the narrative and others where the narrative is the plot. The end doesn't matter. This is one of those movies.

[Drunk Monk]

it's all about the end. that's what redeems all of it.

but i still think it's overrated.