Alexander Payne
1) Downsizing
Summary
A social satire in which a guy realizes he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself.
When scientists find a way to shrink humans to five inches tall, Paul Safrane and his wife Audrey decide to ditch their stressed out lives in order to get small and live large in a luxurious downsized community. Filled with life-changing adventures and endless possibilities, Leisureland offers more than riches, as Paul discovers a whole new world and...
2) Nebraska
Summary
After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father thinks he's struck it rich, and wrangles his estranged son into taking a road trip to claim the fortune. Getting waylaid in the father's hometown in Nebraska, the son tries to reconnect with his impenetrable father.
Summary
Matt King is an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
4) Sideways
Summary
Jack and Miles were college roommates, and despite their differences, they have been friends ever since. Jack is an actor, whose career high point is a stint as a soap opera regular. English teacher and oenophile Miles would much rather be a published novelist. Jack is about to get married, so depressed, divorced Miles suggests they hit the road for a week-long bachelor party amidst the rolling hillsides and gorgeous sunsets of wine country near Santa...
Summary
Chuck and Larry are the pride of their fire station. Two guy's guys always side-by-side and willing to do anything for each other. Widower Larry wants just one thing, to protect his kids. His buddy Chuck also wants on thing, to enjoy the single life. Grateful Chuck owes Larry for saving his life in a fire, and Larry calls in his marker when civic red tape prevents him from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries. All that Chuck...
Summary
Matt King is an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family's land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
Summary
Warren Schmidt is at sea after being left a widower shortly after retiring from a lifetime as an actuary at Woodmen of the World Insurance in Omaha, Nebraska. He matter-of-factly explains that, since he is 67, retired, and a widower, he should be dead within nine years--this in a letter to the African boy he is sponsoring through a charitable relief organization. As daughter Jeannie's wedding to waterbed salesman fiancé Randall looms, Warren sets...
Summary
When renowned paleontologist Dr. Grant agrees to accompany a wealthy adventurer and his wife on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna, InGen's former breeding ground for prehistoric creatures, he has no idea that he was brought along for a totally different reason. When their plane crashes and they become stranded, they discover the island's native inhabitants are smarter, faster, fiercer and more brutal than imagined.
Summary
A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually, he forms an unlikely bond with one of them -- a damaged, brainy troublemaker -- and with the school's head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.
Summary
A scheme to open a theme park featuring real dinosaurs cloned from DNA turns into a catastrophe; two teams head for Site B, an island where the dinosaurs have been left alone for four years; renowned paleontologist Dr. Grant is tricked into flying over InGen's former breeding ground for prehistoric dinosaurs, when the plane crashes.