Following 2011’s Oscar-winning The Descendants, Alexander Payne is bound for Cannes this month with his latest film, Nebraska.
The film is screening In Competition at Cannes, alongside the likes of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, James Gray’s The Immigrant, and a slew of other anticipated titles. And we can’t wait to hear the first reviews from the festival. Smart money says that Nebraska is going to be a strong contender come Oscar season this year.
With its premiere out in France just a few days away, the festival has debuted the first clip from the film, giving us a look at Payne’s family drama/comedy.
A poor old man living in Montana escapes repeatedly from his house to go to Nebraska to collect a sweepstakes prize he thinks he has won. Frustrated by his increasing dementia, his family debates putting him into a nursing home — until one of his two sons finally offers to take his father by car, even as he realizes the futility.
En route the father is injured, and the two must rest a few days in the small decaying Nebraska town where the father was born and where, closely observed by the son, he re-encounters his past. (Don’t worry — it’s a comedy.)
Shot in black and white across four American states, the film blends professional actors with non-actors and aspires to mirror the mood and rhythms of its exotic locations.
Bruce Dern and Will Forte take the leads here as on-screen father and son. And they’re joined by June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, and Stacy Keach.
Payne is directing from a script penned by Bob Nelson, who makes his feature debut here as a writer.
Nebraska has already been slated for release on November 22nd in the US, and is all but guaranteed to be an awards contender for Paramount alongside Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. No word yet on a UK release date, but we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed to see it arrive on our shores before the year’s end, too.
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