Alexander Payne

Since arriving on the American independent film scene with his breakthrough Citizen Ruth, an unexpected dark comedy starring Laura Dern as a pregnant woman being used a pawn in both sides of the ideological divide over abortion, writer-director Alexander Payne has always put this country’s cultural, political, and emotional realities under a microscope—while never forgetting to also make viewers laugh. This rare talent, coupled with an enormous skill directing actors, many of whom give career performances under his watchful eye, has carried him through all his films, psychologically acute and often poignant inquiries into the lives of taciturn American misfits and losers perched on the edge of satire. On the occasion of his moving, exquisitely made latest, the Christmas-set ’70s period piece The Holdovers (screening with Payne in person), MoMI is pleased to present a weekend of Payne’s feature films.