Opening a film on an extreme closeup of Bill Nighy's face is by far the best directorial decision in this entire franchise.
I am only partly kidding. This is indeed one of the most artistically and visually strong films in the series, second only to Prisoner, but that still leaves it only a half-decent film that I'm still overly emotionally attached to.
I have been on actual road trips that went by faster than “Nebraska,” the latest work by Alexander Payne, and that time was spent with far better company. Payne’s film, filtered through black and white to quite effectively evoke the dreary monotony of the Midwest landscape in what is easily the best artistic decision made about this film, follows retiree Woody Grant, played by Bruce Dern. Woody is a stubborn, unpleasant fellow that has bought into a sweepstakes mail scam,…
Although the trademark cynicism of writers and directors Joel and Ethan Coen endures in their latest project, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” it is one of their most distinctively empathetic films yet, in its portrayal of struggling artists in New York City during the 1960s’ folk music scene. Gorgeously shot through an almost murky filter capturing the haze of the lifestyle, the film explores the aimlessness of youth and the vicious cycles anyone can become trapped in under the wrong circumstances.
The…
