Nebraska · reception & legacy
2013 · Alexander Payne
How Nebraska has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It premiered at Cannes 2013 to warm reviews (Bruce Dern took Best Actor there), then went 0-for-6 at the Oscars and got filed away as 'minor Payne' — but it's quietly climbed since, with plenty of fans now calling it his most humane film.
What's debated
The eternal Alexander Payne fight — is he lovingly portraying small-town Midwesterners or smugly condescending to them? — burns hotter over Nebraska than any of his other films.
Its footprint
This is the movie that made June Squibb an icon: an Oscar nomination at 84, a scene-stealing reputation, and the launchpad for her beloved late-career run. It's also the film that taught everyone Will Forte could act.
Where it stands
A slow-burn canon climber and a fixture of the 'sad dad cinema' pantheon — Letterboxd's go-to 'watch this, then call your father' movie.