Whenever we set aside time to watch movies, chances are it’s more than one. I mean, let’s face it: a movie day/night is not that if you just see one...am I right?! Most of the time, we pick two movies to do that and we like to sometimes make it thematic. With that in mind, we at For Films’ Sake wanted to share our recommendations for a double-feature. Here are my choices.
Out of many pairs of movies I could choose, I’m going to be a prisoner of the moment here and go off of something I saw recently. For the first time ever, I’d just seen The Straight Story by David Lynch and I was deeply touched by it. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen Lynch do and it was heartfelt and emotional. I would start with that one as a recommendation for a double feature.
As a partner for Lynch’s 1999 film, I picked Alexander Payne’s Nebraska (2014). That lovely black and white film is a moving story, similar to Lynch’s film, and would serve as an ideal tag team for a movie night.
Both films are similar, even though their stories are different. I’m positive Nebraska was partly inspired by elements of The Straight Story. Both films are road trip movies centered around elderly men. When that type of theme is touched, it usually gives us elements of growing old, reminiscing, and about time passing by and yearning for yesteryears. There is absolutely no doubt your eyes would get watery, as do mine with both films. Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) and Bruce Dern (Nebraska) give amazing performances at the center of these two pictures.
One element that stands out to me in both movies is the caricature of the region. Iowa (The Straight Story) and Nebraska (Nebraska) are both characters of their own as settings of each story. Both films serve as mild satires of their settings, with a homespun vibe to them. Of course, both settings come with memorable characters that we see along the way, that serve as the faces of the places.