Nebraska

"So, you told the sheriff you were walking to Nebraska."

"That's right... to get my million dollars."

“Nebraska” is a 2013 drama/‘adventure’ film that follows an old man’s (and his reluctant son’s) journey across multiple states and plenty of miles to claim an obviously fake cash prize of one million dollars, attracting plenty of local attention along the way.

Onto the unexplainable first: this film is unusually, inexplicably original. While one could initially write a film off with a premise such as this, the extra steps this production takes to be its own work is incredibly praiseworthy. With an unconventional structure, off-kilter comedy, and amazing, black-and-white cinematography, “Nebraska” takes the ‘road trip’ genre and makes it its own. Simply put, “Nebraska” is just something you’ve never seen before.

However, the true shining star of this film is not the great cinematography nor the hugely entertaining screenplay, no, but rather the old man himself: Bruce Dern. If I’ve ever seen an Oscar worthy performance, this is it- he’s really that good. I find it often hard to describe what makes a particular actor/actress ‘good,’ but in this case, I think just doing an action as simple as watching the trailer showcases this man’s talent enough (which I conveniently put below).

He doesn’t even have to say anything to convey emotion: thanks to help from the fantastic, in-depth screenplay, Dern is able to communicate one thousand different emotions and expressions all at the same time just by being in frame.

However, for all of the hugely and consistently fantastic performances this film has, there has to be one flaw, and even a film such as “Nebraska” is not exempt to its ultimate fate- in other words, I had quite the hard time buying into the main character’s (Will Forte’s) performance. Later on, I fully accepted his acting ‘methods,’ but initially, the way he delivered his lines just seemed a bit… odd (and not on purpose, either).

9/10- Despite having a certain actor not letting me to get fully invested until later on, “Nebraska” wholly makes up for this by having unconventional cinematography, a crazily inventive story, and one of the best performances I’ve ever witnessed- a true cinematic treat.