Alexander Payne

A disappointed man gets in a car. He is a retired actuary driving a motorhome in About Schmidt, a failed novelist touring vineyards in Sideways, an old drunk convinced he has won a magazine sweepstake in Nebraska. The comedy comes from how precisely the humiliation is observed, and the films stay fond of the men anyway. The Holdovers keeps three people at a boarding school over Christmas and finds the same warmth without a road.

Signature

• Middle-aged male failure examined at close range.
• The road trip as a structure for taking stock.
• Regional American specificity, especially the Midwest.
• Comedy and humiliation held in the same shot.