It
is fitting that "Nebraska" is filmed in black and white because it is
something you would have seen on the small TV screen in the 50s. There
is the bleak picture of America's heartland with nary a sign of a teenager and all the citizens are caricatures from Hollywood's pen.

The few modern touches consist of an old man, possibly suffering dementia, thinking he has won the million dollar magazine sweepstakes. In their last pictures do you remember Henry Fonda, Cary Grant or Gary
Cooper playing 'old' men with mental problems? Another 21st century
touch is having an old woman very comfortable with the 'f' word and/or
talking about all the men who have wanted her or lifting her skirt to
show a dead man what he missed. Can you picture Ethel Barrymore or Claudette Colbert doing either?

"Nebraska"
is basically road trip story between a father and son in order for the
father to collect the millions dollars he knows he won and for his
younger, of two sons, to get to know him better before it is too late.
Bruce Dern plays the father Woody Grant, Will Forte his younger son David, Bob Odenkirk
the older son Ross Grant and June Squibb is Kate, their mother and
Woody's wife. When driving from their home in Billings, Montana, where
Woody and Kate moved to as a young married couple, they stop in
Hawthorne, a fictional farming town, where they were born and raised.
While here we get to meet other members of the family at a last minute
reunion. All the men, including Woody's brother, Ray, (Rance Howard),
are the taciturn men of the midwest and their wives having  the weathered look of living a hard working life. It is Ray's two overweight sons, played by Tim Driscoll and Devin Ratray who are the more outgoing particularly when they are talking about cars and then Woody's million dollars.

Woody Grant is an old alcoholic, Korean war veteran who once owned a business with his friend Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach)
and hearing he has won the money turns on him as do most of the other
folks in Hawthorne, including his family, all wanting a piece of the
pie.

Bruce Dern shines in his passive role markedly different than the many loony roles he has played while Will Forte, having the modern look of the unshaven actor, holds his own in the scenes with Dern
but it is June Squibb who steals every scene she is in. After 55 plus
years on the stage, TV and in the movies this is her breakout role. She
handles the lines, and laughs, of screenplay writer Bob Nelson as if she
wrote them. Angela McEwan, as the owner of the town's paper and who once was in love with Woody, also stands out.

The
direction by Alexander Payne as the music by Mark Orton, along with the
cinematography, has the black and white feel of  Montana and Nebraska.
"Nebraska" was made for the large theatre screen but having the feel of a 1950s TV movie it would probably be better watching it on television.