Comedies of Beset Manhood: Midlife Masculinity in the Films of Alexander Payne

The career of director-writer Alexander Payne has coincided with, and developed alongside, the cultural discourse about men in crisis. His last seven films have engaged several of the concerns that have informed considerations of contemporary manhood since the 1990s. Avoiding the overwrought tone of many of such works, Payne’s films collectively examine the disorientation and disappointments of midlife men, but they defy simplistic narrative resolutions. Both employing and subverting the conventions of comic form, Payne’s films artfully reveal how ideologies of iconic White manhood weigh on individuals who fall outside of—or age out of—those masculine ideals. In narrativizing and individualizing the concerns of the men-in-crisis conversation, Payne adds complexity and depth to ongoing discourses about gender and aging.