But circumstances force Woody and David to stop in Hawthorne, Nebraska for an unplanned and strained reunion with old friends and family.

With just over 1,000 residents and its better days long gone, Hawthorne seems symbolic here not just of other struggling towns in the American West but also of a more complex economic, moral, and cultural decline.

As we watch Woody face the scattered remnants of his own past and struggle to make sense of the present, we are forced to consider our own families, our own pasts, our own choices.

Or at least that’s how I felt. I suspect the tragedy — and the occasional comedy — of the Grant family will elicit wildly different emotions from those who see it.

Bruce Dern so fully inhabits the character of Woody that I could barely take my eyes away from him. Early on, Woody seemed at times a bit too aware to be wandering confusedly by the roadside, but dementia obviously takes many forms and I was soon swept away by the performance.

Dern won the best actor prize at Cannes earlier this year, and it’s easy to see why. He’s so good here that he threatens to overshadow the fine work of Forte, who is utterly convincing as the unambitious David.

In one especially fine scene early on, David’s former live-in girlfriend has stopped by with some bags. He thinks at first that she is moving back in, but she’s just dropping stuff off. The couple’s entire relationship is suggested with a few sparse snatches of dialogue and a few tired expressions.

Again and again, Payne wrings meaning and emotion from similarly simple moments in Bob Nelson’s sparse, disciplined script.

Woody’s acerbic wife Kate (June Squibb) has hit a point in life where she sees no need to hold back about anything — her disgust with her sometimes drunken and somewhat demented husband, her frustration with her sons’ softness, her harsh judgments about friends and family with whom she grew up, her own sexual allure decades ago.

Sqibb fires off one liner after one liner, and at times her cynical humor seems about to overwhelm the story’s deeper elements.

But then Kate is reeled back in, and she even manages a few moments of true nobility as she defends Woody and reaches out to him in quiet ways.

In its pretty dark portrait of life in Hawthorne and implicitly of life in the West, the film occasionally settles for caricature — like in a few of the scenes with David’s creepy cousins.

In another sad moment that elicited some uncomfortable laughter at the screening on opening night of the Savannah Film Festival, Woody and the other men of the Grant family are glued to a television, barely talking amongst themselves. But at points like this when the story could have devolved into mockery, Nebraska quickly finds its emotional footing, like in a brilliant scene when David talks to one of Woody’s old girlfriends, a woman he didn’t even know existed — a woman who remembers Woody at his best.

Like Woody, David, Kate, and their other son Ross (Bob Odenkirk), we are moving through life in the shadow of lives we could have lived — and in the shadow of lives that others around us could have lived.

Nebraska is shot in black and white. For obvious reasons, the technique reminded me of The Last Picture Show, and it’s worth noting that the desaturation placed particular emphasis on the composition of individual shots, which returned routinely to balanced, geometric images.

The camera becomes a raw, unflinching, honest observer of the unfolding tragedy. The medium all but disappears.

There were several obvious ways for director Payne and writer Nelson to close this film. Fortunately, they didn’t choose any of those cheap options.

The final moments of Nebraska are both stirring and restrained, with father and son looking back even as we know that much harder choices are coming.

Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, starring Bruce Dern and Will Forte as father and son, will open the Savannah Film Festival.

The movie’s star Bruce Dern will honor Payne with an “Outstanding Achievement in Cinema” award before the screening.

Dern himself was honored by the SFF in 2006 and was the winner of the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Nebraska.

Payne has won Oscars for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay for both Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011).

Nebraska tells the story of an aging father (Dern) who is duped into thinking he has struck it rich. He convinces his son (Will Forte) to hit the road to claim the fortune.

Click here for a roundup of reviews at the LA Times.

Payne’s complete filmography includes Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002).

Dern’s legendary career includes Coming Home, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Great Gatsby, Wild Bill, and After Dark, My Sweet (one of my favorites).

Both Dern and Payne will conduct master classes for Savannah College of Art and Design students while they are in town for the festival, which is of course organized and produced by SCAD.

The stellar list of folks who have attended the SFF over the years includes Peter O’Toole, Michael Douglas, Oliver Stone, Jane Fonda, Sidney Lumet, James Gandolfini, Ian McKellen, Isabella Rossellini, Lily Tomlin, Ellen Barkin, Liam Neeson, Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, Matt Dillon, Norman Jewison, James Marsden, Jason Patric, Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Donen, John Waters, James Franco, Alec Baldwin, Natasha Richardson, James Ivory, Ray Liotta, Aaron Eckhart, Stan Lee, Roger Ebert, Terrence Malick, Ben Edlund, Matthew Modine, Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Diane Lane, Chris Noth, Sydney Pollack, Rex Reed, Malcolm McDowell, and Milos Forman.

I’ve been fortunate to be covering the Savannah Film Festival almost since its inception. It has become one of the most important events on Savannah’s cultural and social calendars. The speed with which the coveted evening screenings sell out indicates even stronger demand than the festival can meet.