It is, without question, one of the funniest performances of the year.
As Kate Grant, the sassy, expletive-hurling matriarch of the Grant clan in Alexander Payne’s award bait film Nebraska, June Squibb is an absolute marvel. Whether she’s talking smack behind other women’s backs or restoring order among her wacky family by shouting the F-word, the 84-year-old journeywoman actress will have you in hysterics. Beneath her sweet, Midwestern granny exterior lies a tough-as-nails old lady with absolutely no filter.
Kate is the thorny wife of former alcoholic Woody Grant, played by Bruce Dern, in Payne’s sublime black-and-white road dramedy. When Woody, who suffers from dementia, receives a bogus publisher’s clearing house ticket in the mail, he thinks he’s hit the lotto jackpot and, accompanied by his youngest son, David (Will Forte), embarks on a road journey from Montana to Nebraska to cash it in with the hope of leaving some money aside for his family after he’s gone.
Watch an exclusive featurette on the force of nature that is Kate Grant. It’s a performance which, if there’s an justice, will earn Squibb an Academy Award nomination.
