The Films of Alexander Payne - C/D

shittily-sung kareoke as the How Folks Spend Their Time scene felt like the the condescension ne plus ultra here

discreet shot of Tricuits in aunt's kitchen is the ne plus buttra

oh it was cheap... but still funny. nice details in the set design too, like will forte's apartment's fridge having a jimmy john's - we deliver! magnet on it

conspicuously large tombstone in graveyard had PAYNE on it. would like to know how much of himself + his family is in this

no that's true & how they gave bruce dern a hat at the end that said CAPITALISM on it & the cartoonist from the onion comic strip popped up in the bottom right to wink

nice.

this wasnt as good as a kelly comic, i'll admit

just read that cranston auditioned for forte's role and apparently "I don't think he's right for the part," Payne said, "but he's an astonishing actor, that guy." yeah ok homie

thought odenkirk was v good

he and Forte match up as bros, and Odenkirk's "Breaking Bad" mannerisms suit him here.

can we agree that woman who ran the newspaper was great?

Yes -- best performance.

whoever does paynes casting should be lauded imo

A review.

uh, Jon Voight is the paraplegic in Coming Home

Dern's signature '70s parts are Smile and Black Sunday imho.

yeah corrected.

I haven't seen Smile in yeeeears and am not confident enough to about my judgment then.

Saw Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte just last week, which all centers around his early exit. He's been around a long time.

he is killed in a flashback in Marnie

Takes maybe half-an-hour to find its footing, but in the end I liked Nebraska fine. I think the obvious complaint against it would be that it was conceived before it was felt; Alexander Payne has seen The Straight Story and Paris, Texas and Harry and Tonto, and he wanted to make a film like that. (He tried once already, right? I forgot About Schmidt the minute it ended--this attempt's much better, I think.) That aside--and maybe the too-ordinary performance by Will Forte; funny people sometimes rein themselves in till there's nothing left--many moments I'll take away from this. High on the list: the last five minutes, the newspaper lady, Dern's wife giving the rest of the family what for. Liked the soundtrack a lot.

jeezus, the last 5 minutes is crazy obvious; it feels written by a test screening.

I'm not sure what kind of surprise ending you were looking for. It was no more or less obvious than the ending of The Straight Story. (The really obvious ending would have been--well, I won't say, but I'm sure you can fill in the blank there.)

Would've been OK if the endings for Nebraska and The Last Stand had been swapped.

I'd have settled for "I'm not buying you an air compressor, Dad, I don't have the money."

I saw it on Christmas Day with a young Chinese lady. We were trying to see Her, but it was sold out. Afterwards, she asked me, "What is a compressor?"

As a midwesterner with these folks as relatives, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Was surprised at how much I liked Will Forte in this, but I think this is Payne's worst by some distance. If it weren't for Kristen Scott-Thomas comparing her son's cocks in Only God Forgives, June Squibb flashing the grave of her ex would have been the most embarrassing scene of 2013.

i think the descendants was worse, maybe. neither of them was particularly good or bad IMO. payne mostly inspires shrugs chez moi.

apparently payne had to work really hard to get bruce dern not to overact in every scene.

apparently sometimes he would actually film him in what were, ostensibly, moments in between takes just so he could get reaction shots of him where he wasn't doing business or mugging

<-- this from horse's mouth

i think they say something similar about kaurismaki, too, that he'll secretly shoot what are ostensibly dry runthroughs to get readings as affectless as possible

jeez, i sound like the "apparently kid"

i think they say something similar about kaurismaki, too, that he'll secretly shoot what are ostensibly dry runthroughs to get readings as affectless as possible

― schlump, Sunday, October 26, 2014 12:46 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

malick did this a lot on the new world, probably his more recent films as well. but in payne's case it's not a general strategy, just an attempt to get some reaction shots of dern where he wasn't mugging. i do like dern as an actor, but here he's playing a guy who's living mostly in his head, and you'd have to say that for that sort of role he's definitely being cast against type..

http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/bullied-by-oscar-winner-on-movie-set

Alexander Payne‘s long-in-the-works “Downsizing” has been handed a big holiday release date of December 22, 2017. The high concept movie stars Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Alec Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Sudeikis, and Hong Chau and follows an Omaha man in the not-too-distant future where humans are now able to shrink themselves to 1/8 their size as a means to battle over-consumption and the rapid depletion of earth’s natural resources. He decides to undergo the process himself, and joins others who have done the same.

http://theplaylist.net/alexander-paynes-downsizing-coming-december-2017-mission-impossible-6-arrives-2018-20161109/

Sweet jesus, this sounds awful:

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2017/09/downsizing.html

Classic for Nebraska, Citizen Ruth and Election. I could take or leave the rest

Nebraska was terrible. The other two are great ... his only great films.

Was wondering what Payne was up to and it turns out he was right up to the point of shooting a road movie for Netflix based onMy Saga until Karl Ove Knausgard pulled the rights at the last minute.

Jesus, I just saw this. Terrible. The only instance of test audiences forcing the filmmakers to shoot a new, correct ending?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhezOPupmj4

RIP Election's, Jessica Campbell (Tammy Metzler), 38

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jessica-campbell-election-star-dies-at-38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqpGy-DxPF0

Checking her imdb, two things astounded me: How few credits she had (six total: a tv movie when she was a kid, Election; two eps of Freaks...; The Safety of Objects; a short film; and what I assume was an unreleased feature called Junk from 2002), and that she was two days younger than me, which means she was 15 when filming Election, and 16 when she was Tuba Girl.

that is weird.... only SIX?

I noticed that Payne's wiki has a "2017–2022: Career slump" header and a "2023–present: Resurgence" header. New one is getting a pretty positive reception.

Didn't realize he was originally on board to direct "The Menu."

The trailer, no surprise, looks dreadful.

I did like the very 70s voiceover for the trailer.

No one else will bother to see The Holdovers, so: not very good. The Killer is heavy-handed not-very-good, Priscilla is lifeless not-very-good, The Holdovers is clunky not-very-good.

anyone do the daily framed.wtf quiz?
I'm inordinately annoyed that the last few were "Brought to you by The Holdovers, in cinemas now..." and they were Election, About Schmidt, Nebraska (which I remember quite liking but immediately forgot) and The Descendants. I think they'd already had Downsizing some time ago.

I saw Nebraska on an airplane this year, thought it was hilarious.

I did bother to see it, FWIW there clemenza. A minor/gets-a-pat-on-the-head effort, but certainly not great; a better movie would have actually gone further with Da'Vine Joy Randolph's character rather than essentially having her disappear for a good chunk of the closing half and I rather suspect Payne would have been more comfortable with just the other two leads. Atmosphere was excellent in general, though, it gets a quiet holiday mood well, and the blend of original score and choice of songs helped.