Film

Nebraska

Name: Nebraska
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Released: 2013
Cast: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach

Alexander Payne's black-and-white road movie follows a booze-soaked old man convinced he's won a million-dollar sweepstakes, and the son who drives him to collect it out of guilt more than belief. It's deadpan, melancholic, and quietly devastating about fading small-town America, family debts left unpaid, and the dignity people cling to even when everyone around them can see the con. Funnier and sadder than you'd expect.

TMDb rating

7.4

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The Straight Story1999

David Lynch's gentlest film: a stubborn old man drives a lawnmower across two states to reconcile with his estranged brother. Same patience, same tenderness toward difficult old men, same quiet Midwest.

But Almost nothing happens by design. If you need momentum, this will test you.

About Schmidt2002

Payne's earlier study of a man whose life has quietly amounted to less than he hoped, with Jack Nicholson doing career-best deadpan sorrow. Same eye for American disappointment, same refusal to sentimentalise it.

But Schmidt is a harder man to root for than Woody — colder, more self-pitying.

Sideways2004

Another Payne road trip where the scenery is really an excuse to look at two men failing to grow up. The comedy and the sadness share a lane the whole way through.

But Wine country charm and midlife-crisis banter are a very different flavour to Nebraska's flat grey plains.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Wild Strawberries1957

Same skeleton exactly: an aging man, a road trip, an estranged relative forced along for the ride, and a life's regrets surfacing mile by mile.

Bergman's black-and-white road movie sends an old, difficult man on a drive through his own past, forcing a reckoning with the son and family he's failed. It did Nebraska's whole architecture decades earlier, in Swedish, and with more soul-baring.

But Slower, more overtly philosophical, and entirely without Nebraska's comic deadpan.

Nomadland2021

Frances McDormand drifting through a hollowed-out American landscape, working odd jobs, carrying grief nobody asks about. Same tenderness for people the economy left behind.

But More meditative and less plotted — there's no scheme to chase, just a life being lived.

The Descendants2011

Payne again, this time on a father forced to finally show up for his family under bad circumstances. The comedy sneaks in sideways, same as here.

But Hawaii sunshine instead of prairie grey — a warmer, softer register throughout.

Little Miss Sunshine2006

A broke, bickering family crammed into a van chasing an unlikely prize, with humour and heartbreak riding shotgun the whole way. Great if you want the road-trip-family formula lighter and louder.

But Broader jokes and a more upbeat finish — it wants you laughing more than it wants you sad.

A Simple Plan1998

Snowy Midwest, ordinary brothers, and a sudden windfall that curdles everything it touches. Same interest in what money fantasies do to families who've never had any.

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Manchester by the Sea2016

A quiet, devastating film about a man who can't say what he feels and a family straining under decades of unspoken damage. Similar restraint, similar ache underneath.

But Much heavier going — there's little of Nebraska's dry comic relief to lean on.

Fargo1996

Coen brothers deadpan, snowbound Midwest, ordinary people undone by greed and bad luck. If you loved the flat vowels and flatter horizons, this is the same country, meaner.

But Much bloodier and stranger — the comedy here comes with actual violence attached.

American Movie1999

Both are about a broke Midwesterner chasing an implausible payoff nobody else believes in, and the exhausted family who show up anyway.

A real Wisconsin dreamer tries to finish his amateur horror film against every possible odd, funded by pocket change and family who've stopped believing in him. It's a documentary but it feels like Nebraska's cousin — same flat light, same stubborn delusion, same love underneath the mockery.

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Waking Ned1998

Same engine as Woody's sweepstakes delusion — a community's collective fantasy about a lottery windfall — but turned into a cosy comic caper instead of a study in disappointment.

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