My last awards-season piece for the Los Angeles Times is a Q&A with director Alexander Payne, pictured above in Western-appropriate Cinemascope. Payne's comment that he'd like to make Westerns, "or at least a Western, for Christ's sake," was a passing thing, so it's a little odd to see it headlining the Times piece; my first instinct, for some reason, was to brace for an irritated phone call, although it's not like he has my number. But hell, it's late in the day and the movie's been talked up a bunch, so why not highlight the part he hasn't said a thousand times already? More, including why he thinks comedy directors make the best dramas, here, and a few quotes on the subject of star George Clooney here. And, from way back when, my City Paper review of the film.
