Take a trip to 'Nebraska': An Alexander Payne appreciation

Nobody really factored Nebraska as much of factor in this year's Oscar race and it wasn't.

It was a hard movie to compare to a blockbuster like Gravity or an emotional powerhouse like 12 Years a Slave. It was the lowest grossing best picture nominee and God forbid, it was in black and white.

The movie went 0 for 6 at the Academy Awards and I fear it may be eventually forgotten since it doesn't boast big name stars or special effects.

Still, it was one of my favorite films of the year and it's the latest masterpiece from one of the best directors working today, the woefully under-appreciated Alexander Payne.

Nearly every film this man has made is great (I need to give Citizen Ruth a second chance) and what I love about his work is that he does honest stories about regular people -- movies for and about adults. Luckily, he's had some commercial success (Sideways, About Schmidt and The Descendants were both hits), so he's been afforded (at least for now) the luxury of making his kind of movies his own way.

In Nebraska, he takes an amusing premise -- elderly, deteriorating drunk (a note-perfect Bruce Dern) is convinced he has won a million dollars from a Publisher's Clearinghouse style scam and drags his long-suffering son (the underrated Will Forte) to collect the prize money. Instead of going for sitcom yuks, Payne portrays the subtleties of a complex father-son relationship and if you think that sounds like a bore, keep in mind that the movie is uproariously funny.

A lot of the credit for that goes to June Squibb, who is ribald an ridiculous as a foul-mouthed piece of work who steals every scene she is in. The script also works wonders but it doesn't condescend to its characters.

That's the one complaint a lot of critics have about Payne -- he seems to be ridiculing small town, middle American folk in most of his movies. But I've always detected an affection for the ignorance or helplessness of his lead characters.

And Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska -- so he knows of what he speaks.

Payne is great at capturing the beleaguered hero. From Election (I'm thinking Matthew Broderick's character) through The Descendants (for which George Clooney should have won the best actor Oscar), he bravely centers his film on flawed, insecure and overwhelmed men and women who make really bad life decisions.

We go on a journey with these people and actually remember them long after the credits roll. How often does that even happen anymore? As the target audience for most Hollywood films continues to shrink, Payne's work starts to look increasingly revolutionary.

Here's hoping he continues to carve out his own niche as one of the unique voices in modern film.