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Beverly Hills, Calif. — With the Independent Spirit Awards and the Oscars coming up this weekend, finally putting a bow on the year and wrapping up the kudos season, studios, agencies, production companies and anyone in between are feting those in their midst with skin in the game at this soiree or that. Thursday night, among other things, it was Paramount Pictures holding one of its big star-packed parties at Spago in Beverly Hills, everyone from Roger Corman to Jane Seymour turning out to honor the studio's Oscar nominees in films like "The Wolf of Wall Street," "Nebraska," "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" and "Star Trek Into Darkness." It was a two-hour event but some folks were just in and out. "Wolf" stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill made an appearance but didn't linger. "Nebraska" director Alexander Payne showed his face later in the evening. Martin Scorsese, however, held court in a...

Chicago – In the latest HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film with our unique social giveaway technology, we have 50 pairs of advance-screening movie passes up for grabs to the new drama “Nebraska” starring Bruce Dern from the director of “The Descendants” and “Sideways”!

“Nebraska,” which is rated “R” and opens in Chicago on Nov. 22, 2013, also stars Will Forte, Stacy Keach, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Mary Louise Wilson, Rance Howard, Tim Driscoll, Devin Ratray and Angela McEwan from director Alexander Payne and writer Bob Nelson. Note: You must be 17+ to attend this “R”-rated screening.

To win your free “Nebraska” passes courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just get interactive with our unique Hookup technology below. That’s it! This screening is on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013 at 7 p.m. in downtown Chicago. The more social actions you complete, the more points you score and the higher yours odds of winning! Completing these social actions only increases your...

Set in the wide expanses of middle America, Alexander Payne's Nebraska still manages to feel small and claustrophobic a lot of the time. While in some ways the film is charming and gentle, it's largely acidic and sour. The motivations at the heart of the film are love, but the weathered and worn souls that inhabit Payne's windswept, black-and-white landscape, conjuring memories of Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, are either too tired or too afraid to admit they even care any longer. The weight of this burden is not only seen on the characters' faces but felt by the audience throughout. Meet Woody (Bruce Dern), the grumbling, aged soul at the center of Payne's story. He received a "winning" sweepstakes mailer, the kind most of us know to throw away, and now believes he's the winner of one million dollars. Tucking his winning ticket into his left breast pocket,...

While we all wish that those ridiculous pop-up ads and promotional flyers claiming we've won a prize were actually real, they're always bogus. Yet, there comes a time in an aging man's life when the chance to be rewarded, and to achieve what you never did, conjures an unrelenting hopefulness, which a scam -- no matter how blatant -- could ever extinguish.

In Alexander Payne's "Nebraska," Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is that aging man, one who receives a certificate in the mail claiming he's won a million-dollar sweepstakes. Resolute in claiming his prize, Woody leaves his home in Montana for Lincoln, Nebraska -- even if it means walking there.

His wife (June Squibb) can't handle Woody's stubborn antics, so she calls her two sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk) to help her out. When they fail to hammer any sense into Woody, Dave reluctantly decides to entertain...

Set in the wide expanses of middle America, Alexander Payne's Nebraska still manages to feel small and claustrophobic a lot of the time. While in some ways the film is charming and gentle, it's largely acidic and sour. The motivations at the heart of the film are love, but the weathered and worn souls that inhabit Payne's windswept, black-and-white landscape, conjuring memories of Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, are either too tired or too afraid to admit they even care any longer. The weight of this burden is not only seen on the characters' faces but felt by the audience throughout. Meet Woody (Bruce Dern), the grumbling, aged soul at the center of Payne's story. He received a "winning" sweepstakes mailer, the kind most of us know to throw away, and now believes he's the winner of one million dollars. Tucking his winning ticket into his left breast pocket,...

After making side trips to California’s Central Coast and Hawaii, Alexander Payne returns to his home state of Nebraska for his sixth directorial feature, a wistful ode to small-town Midwestern life and the quixotic dreams of stubborn old men. Sporting a career-crowning performance by Bruce Dern and a thoroughly impressive dramatic turn by “SNL”/“30 Rock” alum Will Forte, Payne’s first film based on another writer’s original screenplay (by debut feature scribe Bob Nelson) nevertheless fits nicely alongside his other low-concept, finely etched studies of flawed characters stuck in life’s well-worn grooves. Black-and-white lensing and lack of a Clooney-sized star portend less than “Descendants”-sized business, but critical hosannas and awards buzz should mean solid prestige success for this November Paramount release.

Just as “The Last Picture Show” was a movie made in the 1970s about the end of ’50s-era innocence, “Nebraska” feels, despite its present-day setting,...