6 ‘n 90! Da Man reviews six films in ninety seconds.
Nebraska. Even though Nebraska is in black and white, most things in life aren’t–except maybe the Misfits opinions about Alexander Payne’s new film. Two of them loved it, and two of them hated it.
The Book Thief. This quote from Flaubert could be used as the tag line for The Book Thief: Do not read to amuse yourself, or for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
Frozen. Disney’s latest animated feature gets a warm hug from Lou, but the rest of the Misfits give it the cold shoulder.
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Cinema Misfits 
I enjoyed how throughout the course of the podcast Lou went from thinking Nebraska was “horrible” to being talked into it “not being a disaster”. Nebraska wasn’t up to the level of masterpiece as About Schmidt or Sideways, but like you guys said it was charming enough. I was wondering about the black and white, if it was used not only to make the movie stand out but also to signify that it was in the past. Like maybe 1995 or 2001? Because surely by now cell phones have made their way to even Nebraska and Montana and I didn’t see any sign of them in the movie. Here’s my full review of Nebraska… http://pablochiste.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/black-white-freaks-nebraska/
To be fair to Lou, each segment we record runs around thirty or forty minutes and is edited down to anywhere from seven to twelve minutes. Many times Lou’s mid-review conversions aren’t quite as abrupt as they sometimes seem. That said, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to try and stay open to the good points of a film you don’t like.
While Alexander Payne’s films can be on the ironic and slightly sarcastic side, they’re often about people who have made questionable choices in life but manage to make a connection with people and life once again by the end of the film: In About Schmidt, Nicholson’s unexpected bond with a kid in Tanzania; in The Descendants, Clooney’s reintegration into his family; and in Nebraska, if not Dern’s connection with his son, Forte’s connection with Dern.
As for filming Nebraska in black and white, you might be right. I heard Payne in a Q&A kind of dismiss his decision by saying he always wanted to shoot a film in black and white and this seemed like the right film. He’s owned the rights to the screenplay for Nebraska since right after Sideways, so your point about no cell phones in the film would make sense in terms of when the original screenplay was written. Whether a conscious decision on Payne’s part or not, I think your take on why the film is in black and white makes sense.