Nebraska

2013

Paramount/Vantage

“Universal”

Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, and Stacey Keach

Woody Grant, David his son, and Kate, Woody’s wife, slowly, and methodically shuffle through every single rotting room of an old homestead that Woody’s father built with his own hands in the middle of Nebraska, the landscape where everything is bare and plain, and stretching for miles to the next homestead or town.  This is exactly the description of the search through Woody’s soul, the different rooms of a man’s heart.  And amongst all that empty ruin, the broken glass, the completely demolished crib, the alcoholism, the slow depreciation of the body, the son finds a way to hold up a bit of life for his old man, to stand next to him in the face of his ridiculousness, his absurdity, his delusion, and delivers a punch that we’re so glad happens at the proper time.  

Bruce Dern is Woody, Will Forte (SNL fame) is one of his sons, and June Squibb is Woody’s wife.  Bob Odenkirk (Breaking Bad) joins as David’s brother Ross, the other son.   Stacey Keach does a fantastic job in an important smaller role of an old friend in Hawthorne, Nebraska, where Woody grew up.  I remember Bruce Dern from Silent Running (1972), mostly.  That was one of my all-time favorite sci-fi flicks when I was a teen, right along side THX-1138 (George Lucas’ first breakthrough starring Robert Duvall).

This story is about respect, honor, and commitment, even in the face of what appears to be a shattered and worthless life.  It’s about coming to terms with an individual life.

But it is equally about the real desire that we have as fathers to leave something for our children, even if it’s just a truck, and a compressor.

A fabulous job of revitalizing Black and White photography, and a completely appropriate use for this story’s setting.  I liked the fact that at the start, director Alexander Payne (The Descendants - 2011, and About Schmidt - 2002),  used the old Universal logo, also in B/W.  But what could not have been more appropriate than the non-use of color was the inclusion of relatives, and people revealing everything they were - also, eh hem..in black and white, especially the wife Kate.  She was the bullhorn of opinion, the town crier of lists of sins, outspoken and not a hint of embarrassment at her own self-defacement.  She left no rock unturned.  Kudos to the bravery of writer Bob Nelson, who previously to this has written only some TV drama and comedy.  There is a bite to this one.  

Ed Johnson of NUVO.NET does a review in the Nov27-Dec4 issue.  He states, “Nebraska almost succumbs to ugliness, but eventually finds it’s footing and pays off.”  I have to agree here somewhat.  That is what appears to happen if you’re not paying close attention.  But that so-called ugliness is simply truth telling, made possible by Kate, in fact, who plays a much larger role than you would at first imagine.  Ed Johnson also notes that he wonders, “weather Payne and Nelson’s (the screenwriter) parade of sad, angry, inane, lost and /or insufferable folks was an indictment of rural communities or humanity in general.”   I have to say neither.  (Please read “neither" with an “I” instead of an “E”).  It is a parade, yes, but a very carefully executed parade through the various vagaries of the degrees of motivations and manipulations that people are capable of, thereby bringing an even higher contrast to the almost winsomely honest performance of Will Forte’s character as his ingenuous son.  Again, more black and white.  This is an expose of the nature of people in the progress of dying.  

The family watching football had to be one of my favorite moments of the film.  Funny, and appropriately timed as a relief from what could have been a tedious subject.  A road movie, as Johnson said in his review, yes, but not a barren one.  I knew when the last shot was happening on the screen, when the titles would come.  It was a great closer, perfectly done, and very satisfying, a complete “trip”, without leaving us in some kind of existential blur or a question about what we should do now.  What to do?  Well, it made me want to pause and spend time with someone, to listen to them, to possibly alleviate their desires for life.  

Great film.

Melancholia

2011 Lars Von Trier

Von Trier has managed to place us in the unenviable position as an audience in the first-person witness to the end of the world, and, as REM stated in the 80s angst of that time, "and I feel fine".  Indeed we do seem to feel fine as the end of the world comes, and somehow, although sad as it may seem, we in some strange way identify with Justine, played masterfully melancholy by Kirsten Dundst, and are sensing the need to hush the worried Claire, played by the trepidatious antics of Charlotte Gainsborough. 
The 2-part play, which is intended as a dichotomy of psychological space between 2 differing views of the world, indeed is executed with pinpoint accuracy and distance between the two parties, libertarian and conservative.
One of the most annoying lines of the story is from Keifer Sutherland.  "How many holes does our golf course have?"
The sheer beauty of the opening prologue of the film in extreme slow motion is in itself an answer to that question, which if the artist were here with me on the page, he may say in effect the following:
"Who in their right mind gives a (*&^"
The opening of the film is a short film in and of itself that needs no afterword or narrative function to follow.  As a piece of art it could stand alone.
Worth seeing, most definitely yes.  Jumping to agree with in its conclusions: not on same page.  But a beautiful piece of art and directing, nonetheless.

Agitatus

Lit - a memoir by Mary Karr

2009 - Harper Perennial

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An insatiable text that will not let you go, Mary Karr has taken memoir to a new level in “Lit”.   I first heard Mary reading a section of her book on NPR’s “The Writer’s Block”.   Her revelation on that podcast that she had had a spiritual experience that drove her to write it led me to the work, and it paid off.  I bought the book on that interview alone, well, to be honest along with it being a national best seller.  I have not regretted taking it on in my precious reading time, the little of it that I do have.  I finished tonight, and was completely satisfied with this story of a life. 
She is unabashedly self-abasing and honest.  Let’s see, other synonyms come to mind; transparent, brazen, surgically reliable and the real thing.  Her assessment of her life is painfully awake and alive with moments of clarity that one cannot escape from applying to your own self.  I could see my own self in many of these moments, making decisions based on my own perspectives, bungling through relationships without a guide, prayer-less, hopeless, lost.  Mary carefully and convincingly dissects her journey for us from one of atheistic self-envelopment to transcendent belief and reliance.  For the 12-stepper, this is a hopeful work.  For the would-be addict, it is a warning and guide.  For the so-called “normal” of us, we find that there is no such thing, and in one way or another we are all caught up in chasing some kind of ghost that must be gotten rid of in order to have peace, and meaning.
As for her prose, I had heard it said that Mary never wastes a sentence.  This is true.  I found her work to be funny at times, and inspiring to me as a writer, to be better, and more succinct, and more circumspect.  She certainly is accomplished and deserves praise for the work, as well as an admonition to continue to work at reflecting back to us who we truly are.  This is the perfect work of an author, to shine light in our dark places and make plain those things we so wish we could say ourselves and at times have trouble articulating.  I am now looking forward to going back in time and reading her other works that led her here in “The Liars’ Club” and “Cherry”.
5 stars