Alexander Payne

Alexander Payne (born 10 February 1961) is an acclaimed filmmaker from Omaha, Nebraska. His films generally include the following tropes:


 * Butt Monkey
 * Crapsack World
 * Creator Provincialism: Alexander Payne is Omaha.
 * Cringe Comedy
 * Eagle Land: Overwhelmingly type 2.
 * The Film of the Book: Citizen Ruth is the only one film he's directed which is not an adaptation of a book.
 * Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Especially his first two films.

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Directed:

 * Citizen Ruth (1996) -- A drug addict's latest pregnancy becomes a political football in the abortion debate.
 * Election (1998) -- An idealistic high school teacher tries to sabotage a haughty overachiever's chances of becoming the class president.
 * About Schmidt (2002) -- A recently retired/widowed actuary drives to his daughter's wedding. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Sideways (2004) -- Two former college roommates go on a road trip through Santa Barbara Wine Country before one of them gets married. The same guy has sex with a lot of women, the other...not so much.
 * The Descendants (2011) -- A Hawaiian aristocrat tries to reconnect with his daughters when his wife goes into a coma.