A sweet-natured black and white endeavour

WHO wants to be a millionaire? Woodrow (Woody) T Grant of Billings, Montana, that's who - and he truly believes he has just joined the newly-minted millionaire ranks, having received a letter informing him of his good fortune. The only problem is, Woody is old, damaged and delusional - and an alcoholic to boot. The sweepstakes letter he keeps so close to him is merely one of thousands that are sent out each week by a marketing firm, hoping to secure new subscribers for the magazines it represents.

Welcome to Nebraska and the world of Alexander Payne, a director who has a genuine talent for making quirky, quintessentially American films about different facets of US society. In previous films such as Election (1999), About Schmidt (2002), Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011), he tackled issues as diverse as high school politics, road trips and journeys of the human spirit with intelligence and humour, and could always be counted on to keep the relationships between central characters at the heart of each film.

And so it is with Nebraska, a mid-western state and state of mind that Payne - a native of Omaha - is intimately familiar with, and confident enough of depicting, in black and white. Nebraska the movie is filled with numerous shots of endless farmland, deserted country roads and small-town decay, revealing a sensitivity that other filmmakers may not have.