Paul Dano Tagged Articles at Cinematical

All this week we'll be highlighting some of our favorite scenes from Oscar-winning films and performances leading up to this year's Academy Awards on Sunday night.

Yeah, I'll say it: Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in There Will Be Blood is not only one of the best we've seen in the last couple of decades, but I'll go as far as to say it's one of the best performances by a male actor that I've ever seen. Day-Lewis won the best actor Oscar last year for his role as oil-hungry entrepreneur Daniel Plainview in this film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Most people love to replay the final moments from this flick -- which include that oh-so-memorable line about drinking milkshakes -- but there's something about this scene below that I just adore. Something about the little mind games Plainview and Sunday (Paul Dano) play; the lies, the deception, the greed, the anger, the heartbreak -- it's all just brilliant. Of course this scene means a whole lot more when you watch it in context, but I also believe this scene by itself makes for a great preview of the overall themes and plot of the entire film. Check it out below ...

There Will Be Blood
Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jeff's review

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Explicit Ills, a film which has taken home at least two Audience Awards (SXSW, Gen Art Chicago) during its festival run in 2008. And when a film snags more than one Audience Award, that means audiences kinda dig it, like, a lot. Featuring the directorial debut of actor-turned-filmmaker Mark Webber, Explicit Ills stars Rosario Dawson, Paul Dano, Naomie Harris and Lou Taylor Pucci, among others.

From Scott's positive SXSW review: "Brief, honest, and admirably to-the-point, Explicit Ills follows a group of seemingly unrelated South Philadelphia folks who try to lead normal, happy, anonymous lives -- but their station on the lower rung of the income scale means that even the most basic requirements remain frustratingly out-of-reach." It's a pretty impressive debut for Webber as writer-director, and a film that will unfortunately hit home for a lot of folks during these tough economic times. But there's a strong message and a point, and you'll wanna set aside some time to watch Explicit Ills when it hits theaters on March 6th (In NYC), March 13th (in LA) and March 20th (in Philly).

Click the image below to view the full poster.

Cinematical has received this exclusive poster for the film Gigantic, starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel and John Goodman (check out the full-sized version in the gallery below). Co-written and directed by Matt Aselton, Gigantic follows a depressed mattress salesman (Dano) who, while on a quest to adopt a Chinese baby, is sidetracked when he falls in love with a girl named Happy (Deschanel). Completely bizarre plot, but I have no problem whatsoever watching Deschanel in anything, and it's damn good to see our buddy Dano back up on the big screen (that yellow on the poster remind you of anything?). Oh, and I should mention that Ed Asner and Jane Alexander co-star. Right on! Click on the image below to see the full poster.

Gigantic hits theaters (in limited release) on April 3. Check out a full synopsis after the jump.

Hearing that Kevin Kline is starring in a new film always sets off my alarm, eagerly hoping for something like The Anniversary Party or A Midsummer Night's Dream (and not Trade or The Pink Panther). And this just may be it... Variety reports that Klein, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly, and Katie Holmes have signed on for an adaptation of Jonathan Ames' The Extra Man. Shari Springer Berman wrote the script with Ames, and will direct along with American Splendor director Robert Pulcini.

The book follows a troubled young man (Dano) who gets a teaching job in New York City and ends up living with an "elderly eccentric" (Kline) who spends his time as "the extra man" for rich old women on the East Side. (Ouch. The thought of Kline as "elderly" truly saddens me...) While the old man teaches him some tidbits about city living, like how to sneak into Broadway plays, the younger roommate struggles with his uncertain sexual orientation with cross-dressing and forays into "New York's transvestite underworld."

There is no word on who Reilly or Holmes will play, but maybe one of the book's fans could shed some light on character possibilities? Not that it really matters -- just the thought of Kline, Dano, and Reilly together is enough to sell me, and I'm dying to see what Dano and Kline do with their roles. And who knows? Maybe this will mean a big comeback for Holmes as well (as a big-screen actress) -- she was wonderful in the last film she shared with Klein -- Ang Lee's The Ice Storm.

When Demetri Martin joined the cast of Taking Woodstock, it was set to begin production in late August. In a nice change of pace, the movie is still on schedule, and will begin shooting at the end of the month, SAG strike be damned. But that isn't the only reason to anticipate Ang Lee's project. Variety reports the ensemble cast has been set, and it's insanely good. Get ready for a film that includes the likes of Emile Hirsch, Imelda Staunton, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Eugene Levy, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Dan Fogler, Mamie Gummer, Henry Goodman, and Jonathan Groff.

Martin stars in the memoir adaptation as Elliot Tiber, a closeted gay man and aspiring interior designer who gives up his Big Apple dreams to run the family business in a Catskills motel. In 1969, he offered the hotel as home base for Woodstock organizers while his neighbor Max Yasgur (Levy) offered his farm. Staunton and Goodman play Tiber's parents, Groff will be festival organizer Michael Lang, Hirsch will play a Vietnam vet just back on American soil, Schreiber is in talks to play a transvestite named Vilma, Morgan will be a closeted married man having an affair with Tiber, Dano and Kazan play a hippy couple going to the concert, Fogler will be the head of a local theater troupe, and Gummer will take on the role of Lang's assistant.

I have a feeling this will be so very, very good.

Back in January, Paul Dano signed on to play a crazy healer who gets taken under the wing of Brian Cox in The Good Heart. Now Just Jared has got some shots from Dagur Kari's production, as it gears up in New York. To the right, you can see Dano in hospital whites, playing frisbee. I guess Cox isn't the only one in the film who hangs in the hospital. (There's another picture over at Just Jared of both of them in their whites.)

The movie is about a man named Jacques (Cox) who runs a deadbeat bar in New York, "like a bar in a Eugene O'Neil play." Dano, meanwhile, is a young homeless man with healing powers who comes to the bar and heals all the men there -- including Jacques, who "is always in the hospital, nearly dying." In thanks, the homeless man is taken under Jacques' wing, to take over the bar, but things get tricky when a Hungarian air-hostess creates a triangle between the two men.

And then, at some point, they must find themselves committed. They're certainly not in a normal hospital if they're walking around on their own and playing frisbee. Whatever the case, the mixture of Dano and Cox sounds excellent, and it should be worth the crazy, healing, dramatic adventure.

When a movie shows up and takes a clear political stance, I find it's easier to judge its successes and / or shortcomings than when a flick dips a toe into the pool of social commentary and just waggles it around for a few minutes -- which probably explains why I both enjoyed and respected Mark Webber's Explicit Ills, an Altman-esque indie drama that has something to say about poverty, health care, and the importance of basic human kindness.

Brief, honest, and admirably to-the-point, Explicit Ills follows a group of seemingly unrelated South Philadelphia folks who try to lead normal, happy, anonymous lives -- but their station on the lower rung of the income scale means that even the most basic requirements remain frustratingly out-of-reach. (In one key scene, an excellent Rosario Dawson is denied asthma medicine for her sick little boy -- because she cannot afford the $55 price tag.) Alternate plot threads involve a pair of young druggies in love, a mega-clean couple who aim to open a health food store, and a cocky adolescent who (slowly) learns how to treat a lady.

Another long day here in Austin ... but definitely a fun one. Went to see two films today: Mister Lonely and Explicit Ills. I was lukewarm on both films; the first was completely out there -- about a Michael Jackson impersonator who hooks up with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, as well as a group of impersonators, who live out their days in a house -- together -- in the middle of nowhere. Shot beautifully, I still haven't quite wrapped my head around it, but it was peaceful, meditative and pretty. Four words: Werner Herzog is awesome. Explicit Ills, on the other hand, was a film starring folks like Rosario Dawson and Paul Dano (who's nabbed top billing even though he appears in all of about seven minutes of the flick), and it jumps between several different "urban" stories -- some more developed than others. There's a message there about poverty and health care (I half-expected the film to fade to black with a message to vote for Hilary Clinton), but parts of it were daunting, while Mark Webber did a heckuva good job behind the camera.

From there, I headed over to this party for the film Bi the Way -- a party which took place outside on some sort of hippie commune. I kid you not; there were campfires, face painting and burlesque dancers (who deserve major kudos for taking off their tops in the freezing cold). At one point during the party, this girl walks up to me and goes, "Hey, you interviewed me in Berlin!" I turned and it was none other than the very awesome Jess Weixler (who starred in Teeth) -- apparently she was there hanging with filmmaker Joe Swanberg (whose Nights and Weekends premieres here tomorrow night). I told Jess that I couldn't believe she remembered an idiot like me, but she did ... and we chatted until Joe pulled her away. Great girl, great actress ... and I wouldn't be surprised if she showed up in the next Swanberg film. (But you didn't hear that from me ....)

Finally made my way back to the hotel, and as I was getting in the elevator Seann William Scott was getting out. He's here (I imagine) promoting his new film The Promotion, which also screens tomorrow night. I almost yelled "Stifler!" but unfortunately I was way too tired. Good times, we'll catch you on the flip side.

Oh crap. I just realized it's time to turn the clocks ahead. Thank God -- I actually thought I blacked out for an hour. Phew.

To be perfectly honest, the premise of Gigantic didn't grab me at first. The plot seemed a little too self-aware and contrived.

Paul Dano (who is also executive producer) will be playing a depressed mattress salesman, who is on a quest to adopt a Chinese baby. But he's sidetracked by falling in love with a girl named Happy, played by Zooey Deschanel. (That's the second reason this film didn't grab me. You're depressed and you meet someone named Happy? How lucky! When I was depressed, I just made good friends with a cold Russian named Stolichnaya.)

But it's starting to win me over now, particularly with these latest cast members. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Ed Asner, John Goodman, and Jane Alexander have signed on.

Asner will be playing Dano's father, who loves pot and gangsta-rap, and Alexander will be playing his long-suffering mother. Goodman will be playing Happy's brilliant and domineering father. The parental combo overcomes my misgivings about the film -- although a stoned Asner could fall incredibly and painfully flat. But they inexplicably have me at "gangsta-rap loving father."

After spending 2006 having the crap scared out of him by Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Dano could probably stand to work on something just a little more light-hearted. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Dano has signed to star in the independent romantic comedy, Gigantic. Dano will star alongside Zooey Deschanel, and plays a mattress salesman who falls in love with a young woman at the store where he works. I can only assume that Deschanel, fresh off of M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, will play that young woman.

So far, no other cast has been named other than Frank Harts (Miracle at St. Anna). The relatively tiny cast leads me to believe that the film is going to be a pretty small affair. Although now that Dano still has some of that post-Oscar buzz surrounding him (despite being snubbed for a nomination), it could raise the profile of the film ever so slightly.

Gigantic will be directed by first-timer Matt Aselton, who also helped to write the script alongside Adam Nagata (also making his feature debut). Production is set to begin this March in New York, but a date has yet to be confirmed. After Dano finishes up work on Gigantic, he's off to work on another indie film, The Good Heart. Heart will reunite Dano with Brian Cox (the two worked together on L.I.E. back in 2001) in a story about an older man who befriends a young homeless man and makes him is protégé. Well, so much for Dano making more happy-go-lucky flicks. Gigantic is expected to be released later this year.