Nebraska

This was an interesting film.
Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is an old man, living in Billings, Montana with his wife of numerous decades, Kate (the great June Squibb), whom he married because he thought, "Hey, what the hell?" He has also received a letter stating that he has won one million dollars and sets out to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect. Because he can't drive, he walks which leads the sheriff to collect him and send him back home several times. His wife can't believe that he wants to be a millionaire and should have worked for it. Luckily, his depressed son, David (Will Forte) finally takes pity on him and offers to drive him to Nebraska. David just broke up with his long-term, live-in girlfriend and basically just wants to get out of Billings for a little while.
Woody is a drunk, though and is estranged from his family, the vast majority of which lives in Hawthorne. Here lives his older brother, Ray (Rance Howard) and his two buffoons for nephews, Cole and Bart (Devin Ratray and Tim Driscoll). The nephews make fun of David for taking two days to drive from Billings to Hawthorne, 750 miles. The one also served time in prison because of a rape, though his mother claims it was sexual assault. "What's the difference?" Kate exclaims. The family wants a share of the money that Woody has yet to collect.
Another problem is Woody's former business partner, Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach). Ed is not a nice guy, though when is Stacy Keach ever a nice person? He wants back the money he lent Woody decades earlier, never mind that he borrowed Woody's air compressor and never returned it. Luckily, David punches him in the end, a move I saw coming but relished nevertheless.
David also learns about his father, who survived a crash in Korea, and married a woman solely because he could. Yet, they never discussed having children, but Woody figured it would happen because Kate was Catholic and he liked to screw. He didn't even love Kate, yikes. David also learns, out of spite from Ed, that his father wasn't always faithful, having sex with a Native American (called half-breed in the film) on the reservation. David still loves him, despite everything.
Though Woody does eventually understand that the winning ticket is a hoax, he wants the money to buy a truck, a new air compressor and then still have some money to leave his sons. That moment is truly touching. But both of his sons (Ross [Bob Odenkirk] is a news anchorman, married with children.) are doing fine, but he still wants to leave them something, proving that he does care though he wasn't around when they were younger, drinking his days away, letting his sons have sips from his beer can when David was only six.
The film ends sadly but sweetly. David does take his father down to Lincoln but there is no million dollars to collect as his ticket wasn't the winning number selected but David takes pity on him, trading in his car for a nice, used truck and buying his dad an air compressor. He even lets Woody take the wheel briefly in Hawthorne before taking over again. And they drive off, life going back to what it was before the trip ever happened, the two closer together now than before.
Though the plot is rather basic, the acting shines. Dern is great but Squibb is the one I will really remember, flashing her old boyfriend in the cemetary and truly owns that scene where she tells her husband's family, desperate for money, that they can shove off. Forte is also great as the forlorn, younger son without a true passion for life.
The realistic scenery and black-and-white cinematography only add to the lost and depressed nature of this film.
Despite the depressed nature of the film, there are still light-hearted moments, like when Woody and David go to the railroad tracks to collect his lost dentures and the looks between the family members. Both Dern and Squibb fully deserved their Oscar nominations. Grade: A