Paul Dano Movies

Robert De Niro and Paul Dano headline writer/director Paul Weitz's adaptation of Nick Flynn's memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City. The story concerns a struggling writer named Nick (Dano), who is working at an inner-city homeless shelter when his estranged father Jonathan (De Niro) shows up looking for a place to rest his head. Dale Dickey, Lili Taylor, Olivia Thirlby, and Julianne Moore co-star in a film produced by Depth of Field in association with Tribeca Productions and Corduroy Films. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys & Aliens is set in 1800s Arizona, where the local cowboys, headed by gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and the indigenous Apache tribe have been feuding fiercely for quite a while. Their skirmish is interrupted, however, by the appearance of a spaceship, commanded by an alien creature that's bent on enslaving the human race. It's time for a six-gun shoot-out between these cattle rustlers and space invaders, and there might even be a temporary peace between the cowboys and Indians as they both take aim at these extraterrestrial uninvited guests. Jon Favreau directs from a script by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, with help from Lost's Damon Lindelof. Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell fill out the headlining cast. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

A lonely writer quits his job at a Princeton prep school and sets his sights on New York, where he forges an unlikely bond with an eccentric playwright who now earns his living as an escort for wealthy Manhattan widows. Upon arriving in New York City, Louis Ives (Paul Dano) quickly lands a job at an environmental magazine and leases a room from Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), a celebrated playwright without a penny to his name. Later, as Louis attempts to strike up a relationship with his environmentally conscious co-worker Mary (Katie Holmes), his urban education gets a sizable jump-start thanks to Henry, who spends his evenings with high-society widows hanging off both arms. As the bond between Henry and Louis strengthens, the young protégé realizes he isn't the only one gaining something from their unusual friendship. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A single girl en route to a family wedding gets swept up in a fight between a rogue government agent and the FBI in this globe-trotting action comedy from director James Mangold (Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma). June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is preparing to board a flight back home for her sister's wedding when she literally bumps into Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) in the middle of a busy airport. A few minutes later, they're making small talk on the plane when June excuses herself to the bathroom, and all hell breaks loose in the fuselage. By the time June emerges Roy has killed everybody on board, including the pilots. After crash-landing the plane in a darkened cornfield, Roy tells June that she should expect a visit from government agents, but warns her that by cooperating with them she risks almost certain death. The following day, Roy's prediction comes true when June is confronted by an imposing gang of government spooks who come under heavy fire while bombarding her with questions about her mysterious traveling companion. Suddenly, Roy is back, and he's once again whisking June away to safety. But what do the agents want, and why do they insist that Roy is the one to be feared, and not them? Before long the girl who never traveled far from home is off on a wild adventure that will take her from the tropics to Austria, France, and Spain. Somewhere amidst all of the confusion and gunfire, June begins to forge a bond with Roy. Unfortunately, it's never quite clear whether her unpredictable protector is one of the good guys or the bad guys, and by the time Roy reveals that he's attempting to protect a valuable new energy source, there's no time for questions. Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Peter Sarsgaard, Maggie Grace, and Marc Blucas co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Visionary director Spike Jonze brings Maurice Sendak's beloved children's book to the big screen with the help of hipster icon Dave Eggers, who teamed with Jonze to pen the adapted screenplay. A mixture of real actors, computer animation, and live puppeteering, Where the Wild Things Are follows the adventures of a young boy named Max (Max Records) as he enters the world of the Wild Things, a race of strange and enormous creatures who gradually turn the young boy into their king. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee tells the story of the Greenwich Village interior designer who inadvertently helped to spark a cultural revolution by offering the organizers of the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival boarding at his family's Catskills motel. The year is 1969. Change is brewing in America, and the energy in Greenwich Village is palpable. Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) is working as an interior designer when he discovers that a high-profile concert has recently lost its permit from the nearby town of Wallkill, NY. Emboldened by the burgeoning gay rights movement yet still tied to tradition in the form of the family business -- a Catskills motel called the El Monaco -- Tiber phones producer Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff) at Woodstock Ventures and offers boarding to the harried concert crew. Later, as the Woodstock Ventures staff begans arriving in droves, half a million concertgoers make their way to Max Yasgur's (Eugene Levy) adjacent farm in White Lake, NJ, to witness the counterculture celebration that would ultimately make history as one of the greatest events in the annals of rock & roll. Imelda Staunton, Emile Hirsch, Liev Schreiber, and Paul Dano co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

There Will Be Blood's Paul Dano stars as Brian, an unhappy mattress salesman whose infatuation with Happy (Zooey Deschanel), one of his attractive customers, temporarily pushes aside his obsession with adopting a Chinese baby in this unconventional romantic comedy from director Matt Aselton. John Goodman, Ed Asner, and Jane Alexander co-star in the Killer Films production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director and screenwriter Adam Bhala Lough takes the reigns for this tale of suburban mayhem that made its world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It's the end of another work week in a typical, working class American suburb, and everyone is looking to cut loose before getting back into the daily grind come Monday. When a series of vicious and apparently random youth-related killings shake this quiet community to its very core over the course of three unforgettable days, however, an investigation soon leads the populace to find that there may be a connecting string that ties all of these brutal homicides together. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Both of their lives having recently taken a sharp turn for the worse, two estranged brothers attempt to flee New York and start over in California, only to find their desperate flight complicated by a robbery gone awry and a mysterious, sphinx-like creature called the sufferer. Paul (Michael Esper) was still living at home with his parents when he decided to drop out of college and search for his wayward brother Don (aka "Light") (Paul Dano). It's been a year since Don was kicked out of the family home, and neither his parents nor his brother have heard a word from him since. After scouring Washington Square Park and finally locating his estranged sibling, Paul proposes that the two make some quick cash by ripping off a gang of local drug dealers, and then hop a plane bound for California to start from scratch. When the robbery goes awry, however, the brothers find themselves pursued through the streets not only by the vengeful drug dealers, but a sphinx-like creature known as the sufferer who trails after people in trouble as well. But is the sufferer a guardian angel, or a harbinger of death? Later, when the drug dealers get the upper hand on the two brothers, Paul turns to the sufferer for help in a moment of desperation. Unfortunately for Don, the sufferer cannot intervene and the events will ultimately have to play out to their natural conclusion. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

When a pudgy, bespectacled seven-year-old, Olive (Abigail Breslin), voices her desire to take home the coveted Little Miss Sunshine crown at an upcoming beauty pageant, her wildly dysfunctional family sets out on an interstate road trip to ensure her a clear shot at realizing her dreams in former music video directorial team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' quirky feature debut, starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, and Toni Collette. Despite early career success as an outspoken motivational speaker, family patriarch Richard (Kinnear) continues to cling to his "Refuse to Lose" philosophy, much to the chagrin of his increasingly annoyed spouse, Sheryl (Collette). Add into the mix a Nietzsche-reading teenage son (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence until he finds his fate as a fighter pilot; a horny, heroin-happy grandfather (Alan Arkin) with a penchant for creative profanity; and a suicidal genius (Carell) and Proust scholar still reeling about losing both his male lover and his MacArthur Foundation genius grant -- and the stage is set for a road trip in which sanity is sure to take the back seat. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Boy meets girl who's already met all sorts of boys and girls in this teen-slanted comedy. Matthew Kidman (Emile Hirsch) is a straight-laced and highly ambitious high school student who plans to study at Georgetown University and dreams of a career in politics. While most of his classmates are in the throes of an epidemic of senioritis, Matthew is obsessed with schoolwork and has a hard time relaxing and having fun. But he finds himself a bit less focused on his future career when Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert), a beautiful 19-year-old blonde, moves in next door. Danielle is playful, spontaneous, and doesn't always remember to draw her shades, and before long Matthew is head over heels in love. Danielle soon finds herself taken with Matthew as well, but their relationship takes an unusual turn when he discovers that, before she moved to town, Danielle had a successful career as a porn actress. Matthew is able to convince Danielle that she's cut out for better things in life than appearing in porn videos, but his advice doesn't especially please Kelly (Timothy Olyphant) or Hugo (James Remar), two porn moguls who figure Matthew owes them big-time after convincing their leading lady to drop out of the adult industry. The Girl Next Door -- which, appropriately enough, shares its title with a 1999 documentary about adult film superstar Stacy Valentine -- also features Timothy Bottoms, Paul Dano, and Chris Marquette. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A female detective on the trail of a psychotic killer discovers love in a dangerous time in this thriller, based on the novel by Michael Pye. Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie) is a special agent with the FBI who has a reputation for using offbeat methods, but also boasts a strong record as a criminal profiler. Scott is called in by a former Quantico colleague (Tcheky Karyo) to assist two Canadian police detectives, Paquette (Olivier Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade), who are on the trail of a serial killer who has been doing business in and around Montreal for close to two decades. The murderer has a history of assimilating many aspects of the lives of his victims after he kills them, but there's been a witness to his most recent crime. Art gallery owner James Costa (Ethan Hawke) saw the killer during an assault, and now finds himself working as an only marginally willing decoy for Scott. As Scott and Costa follow the killer's trail, they find themselves becoming attracted to one another, which is not necessarily a comfort to Scott as she finds her quarry moving closer and closer. Taking Lives also stars Kiefer Sutherland and Gena Rowlands. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi