Editor’s Note: All of our movie coverage can be found on Nashville Movie Dispatch – become a paid subscriber today to catch all of the previous editions of Stoney Sees and much more. This post was written in March of 2024.
Some of you might already know this about me, but I’ll share it for the rest of the room. I could probably count the number of movies I’ve seen that were made before the year 2001 on both hands. No real reason for it – I just wasn’t a big movie kid growing up. I didn’t really start watching movies until I was in high school and we started going to the mall every Friday night. For some reason, there’s a contingent of the SoBros Network team and fan base that really want me to watch some of the classics of yesteryear. So, I figured I’d do that and document the experiences of seeing some of these classics for the first time. Today, we’re watching what Nebraska, from director Alexander Payne.
Alright, so I know I broke the gimmick because I’m writing about a movie made after the year 2001, and that’s probably going to be super confusing that are reading this bit for the first time on the SoBros Substack. Someone needs to restore order on me. I am out of control. But, this is a dedicated space for my exploration of film history, and this journey could take me anywhere. I don’t want to limit myself in that manner. Besides, I honestly watched Nebraska for the first time back in the fall and it had such a profound affect on me that I’m still thinking about it today.
That’s why I felt it worthy of this Stoney Sees column. Brandon approached me about doing a podcast on Payne’s new film, The Holdovers, back in November. It hit The Belcourt Theatre in beautiful 35mm film, and made the viewing experience 10 times better…like I myself was sitting back in the 1970s consuming this movie. Sideways is probably one of my 10 favorite movies of all time, so I was in. Little did he know, but Brandon gave me the kick in the ass I needed to catch up on the rest of Payne’s filmography. If you take Downsizing out of it, you’ve got a Hall of Fame resumé between The Descendants, Election, About Schmidt, and the others I’ve mentioned so far as well. Nestled well into Payne’s catalog is 2013’s Nebraska.
If I’m ranking Payne’s films, I go:
1. Sideways
2. The Holdovers
3. The Descendants
4. Nebraska
5. About Schmidt
6. Election
7. Downsizing
I cannot stress enough how bad Downsizing is. Anyway, I found in talking to Brandon for our podcast, talking to our buddy Sean, the EIC over at 615 Film, and in reading reviews online that I’m a bit higher on Nebraska than most. But, let me tell you why.
My old man passed in June of 2014. It’s a formative event in my life, the repercussions of which I’m still dealing with today. Since that moment, I’m a sucker for dad stories. The thing that Payne does so well in his films is take a genuine approach to slice-of-life stories. They’re all relatable in their own way, and that’s a beautiful thing when you go to the cinema and come away having found something to deeply latch onto. That was my experience with this film, but I acknowledge that it won’t be the experience for everyone.
There were moments I was watching Bruce Dern’s riveting performance as Woody Grant and thinking there’s an alternate universe somewhere in which my father grows old and becomes that man. I’m Will Forte’s David Grant in this scenario.
Nebraska follows Woody as he desperately seeks travel to Nebraska, where he can cash in his winning sweepstakes ticket for a million dollars (so long as he subscribes to a few magazines, of course). David, his mother (the fabulous June Squibb), and his brother (the also fabulous Bob Odenkirk) all try to convince him that it’s a scam, but he’s not hearing it. At one point, after a back and forth with David, Woody exclaims, “they couldn’t print it if it’s not true!” I swear my father once told me they couldn’t put something on television if it wasn’t true. I’m telling you – the parallels between this story and mine are haunting.
David finally caves in and decides to drive the old man to Nebraska so that he can see this whole thing’s a scam for his self. Life isn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows for David either, so he sees it as a chance to take a bit of a break and hit the open road to catch his breath. I know that feeling. That’s where our story becomes a clearer portrait of our main characters. We unravel little nuggets about the past and learn about how the central figures in this story became the people that they are. There are plenty of tender heartfelt moments. There are some well-placed laughs. And, anyone that grew up with a redneck family can certainly relate to the small town shenanigans the Grants encounter. Not to mention, the whole thing is shot in beautiful black and white that gives Nebraska a down-and-out sort of feeling that permeates throughout this story.
I’ll admit that it’s a slow-moving character study that is best served with a cup of something warm, cuddled up under a blanket with nowhere to go for awhile. If you’re not into drawn out films whose magic comes from dialogue, scene-setting, and mood, it might not be your cup of tea. It ain’t a Transformers movie, I’ll tell you that much. But, if you’re in the mood for a fantastic, funny, and ultimately heartwarming movie that you can sit and reflect upon afterwards, this is such a movie. Now that I’ve gotten to the end of this piece, I realized I just typed out in a long-winded way, “if you got a dead dad, go watch Nebraska.” Rating: 9.13/10.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, second on Football & Other F Words, analyst for Stacking The Inbox, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, the NFL Draft, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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