Alexander Payne
As a Guest
Director Alexander Payne On Mining Every Film For Comic Potential
Payne says he first read Nebraska — about a man who is showing signs of dementia — as a comedy. We'll listen back to an interview with Payne originally broadcast on Dec. 2, 2013.
Director Alexander Payne On Mining Every Film For Comic Potential
Payne tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that he first read Nebraska -- a film about an old man who is beginning to show signs of dementia -- as a comedy "with moments of gravity." Payne also directed Election, About Schmidt, Sideways and The Descendants.
In Payne's 'Descendants,' Trouble In The Tropics
Director Alexander Payne finds comedy in the crises of his flawed protagonists: a struggling writer in Sideways, a retired widower in About Schmidt and now a family man who must reassess his life in The Descendants.
As a Topic
Across 'Nebraska,' On A Journey That Goes Beyond The Trip.
Critic David Edelstein calls the film, in which an elderly man sets out to claim a million-dollar sweepstakes prize, a "superb balancing act" from director Alexander Payne.