Alexander Payne is very good at his job.
He's worked with the best, and he brings their gusto out of them. His films have gotten better and better, despite being harder to top. Vancouverites should be excited then, to know Payne's upcoming film Nebraska will make its Canadian debut at the 2013 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) on September 26.
Nebraska will be the opening film of this year's VIFF, and features a Best Actor (Cannes) winning performance from veteran Bruce Dern.
The film centers on a father and son Dern and Will Forte taking an uncomfortable road trip together across the American frontier. And, it's in black-and-white. If anything, it should be interesting.
"I'm always just so damn desperate to find anything that can make a movie,"Payne told ComingSoon.com. "I'm serious. This one is not a grand statement and it's not particularly important to me. 'The Descendants' wasn't entirely personal to me. I just thought it was make a decent movie and it would be fun to make. I also think about what would be fun to make."
Aquick IMDB search of Payne's recent-year resume cycles you through a chronological spin that's only gotten better and better with more time, more budget, and more acting.
Election created the careers of an already blossoming Reese Witherspoon and Chris Klein, and revitalized the comic salt of Matthew Broderick. That led toAbout Schmidt, which showed Jack Nicholson in a new and charmingly boring light and set in pace the road trip, "get to know yourself" theme that Payne has since made his bones on.
Schmidt led toSideways, which many consider his best. Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church owe their checking accounts to that one. Finally,The Descendents nearly won Clooney his first Best Actor Oscar, but did give Payne a statue for screenwriting.
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The Guardian praisedNebraska in its review of the film, and called Bruce Dern's performance "terrific form".
"Dern gives a terrific performance as the blank-faced, disagreeable old Woody (his character name), who also has a bland, complacent side. This emerges when he comes face-to-face with his old buddy and two-faced former business partner Ed Pegram, sharply played by Stacy Keach, who is grasping and credulous on the subject of Woody's new riches. What is incidentally interesting about Nebraska is that the fiction of Woody's lottery payout is almost as good as the non-existent fact. Bogus riches bring Woody acclaim, status, prestige. As for the cash, all he can think of to buy is a new truck. The money wouldn't change his life. But fantasy money really has changed it, and in pursuing this fake cash, he has forced a real crisis, and forced his family to confront some real facts.
"Along with these hard truths, the movie has a soft heart. Perhaps punches are being pulled, just a little. It doesn't stopNebraska from being a thoroughly sweet and charming movie, and a reminder of Dern's quality as an actor."
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This year's VIFF will also feature one of the final acts oflate British Columbian actor Cory Monteith, who passed away this summer at the age of 31.
Monteith stars in director Gia Milani'sAll the Wrong Reasons.
"I was blown away (by his performance)," Milani said after Monteith's death. "Because I hadn't seen him in a dramatic role before, and I felt sure he could handle it but then he really, really could. He's really intense and gives this amazing, layered performance."
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