Alexander Payne/Photo © Cinemafestival/Shutterstock
In Alexander Payne’s films, not much happens but whole worlds change. The director and Oscar-winning screenwriter is hardly prolific, directing six features since 1996, including “Sideways,” “The Descendants,” and now “Nebraska.” Yet each bears his distinct imprint: regular people forced to reevaluate their lives. Nothing explodes in a Payne movie, but there are tremors in relationships, redrawing personal topography.
“There is an audience out there for literate films – slower, more observant, more human films, and they deserve to be made,” Payne has said. “It shouldn’t be an epic aspiration to make simple human stories, but it is.”
Payne received his first 8mm film projector as a child from Kraft Foods, of all places. Learn more about his career in my essay here.