Paul Dano

News, Reviews & Features

Caption this photo of Paul Dano immediately you cowards

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 2nd November 2018

I like Paul Dano. He is good at acting. He is what Empire called "a 27-Percenter" i.e. someone who makes a movie 27% better just by being in it. He makes great career choices. He is a compelling screen presence. He has all the makings of a great film director. And yet: he looks like a right tit in this magazine article. Join me as I attempt to make sense of this conundrum.

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Love & Mercy

Movie Review | Matt Looker | 26th June 2015

The Beach Boys: squeaky-clean surfers, or the subjects of sordid sex scandals, substance abuse and psychotic breakdowns? Whatever your level of familiarity with these endless harmonisers and their incredible off-stage history – fatherly abuse, drugs, rivalry, death, links to Charles Manson, drummer Dennis Wilson falling out with lead singer (and cousin) Mike Love and then marrying his daughter – the chances are that you don’t know the whole history…. because, frankly, there’s just so much to tell. Any Beach Boys biopic just couldn’t possibly do justice to their entire 53-years-and-counting career. Thankfully, this new film focuses on band figurehead and recognised musical genius, Brian Wilson. And even then, it still feels like just a drop in the ocean.

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Top 10 films of our lifetime #6: There Will Be Blood

Movie Feature | Ali Gray | 19th September 2014

It was quite tough to pick just the one Paul Thomas Anderson film for the list. I loved The Master but it feels like it needs a rewatch post Philip Seymour Hoffman's passing to truly appreciate it. There Will Be Blood, on the other hand, feels like it's been preserved in time already: a dyed-in-the-wool classic and no mistaking. Don't just stand there reading this pre-tease: jump right in to read more of me waxing lyrical - Ali.

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Prisoners

Movie Review | Neil Alcock | 20th September 2013

On a list of fantasy dads, Hugh Jackman's got to rate pretty highly. There can't be many actors who you'd want to drop you off at school, teach you to shave or come round and fix your boiler. Clooney? Too pretty. Downey Jr? Too easily distracted. Cruise? Too weird. But even though he's younger than them all, Jackman's got "ideal dad" written all over him, which makes him enormously watchable in the role of protective pop in Prisoners. That is until he transforms into a screaming demon of furious, misguided, hammer-wielding vengeance, at which point I'll take back my actual dad thanks very much. He might not be Hugh Jackman but at least he doesn't perforate your eardrums every time he opens his mouth.

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Ruby Sparks

Movie Review | Matt | 9th October 2012

A film in which the central character is a writer whose latest creation - a beautiful young woman - suddenly appears as an actual person in front of him, and everything he writes about her becomes true in real life. Hmmm... interesting. Worth a shot, right?

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Looper

Movie Review | Ali | 10th September 2012

I saw Looper on Friday last week, and rather than frantically post a knee-jerk reaction review as soon as possible, I thought I'd attempt something a bit different. I loved it and immediately wanted to froth about how it was the best sci-fi of the year and a genre classic in the making, but these sort of labels can only be correctly applied with time. Thus, I'm posting this feature with a blank space, in which my future self – 30 years into the future, as in the film – can write his considered opinion, discussing the longevity of Looper and whether it stood the test of time. Hopefully by 2042 time travel will have been invented and the Ali Gray in 30 years will be able to send back his review, giving us a unique insight into how Rian Johnson's film held up. Fingers crossed it works!

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Cowboys & Aliens

Movie Review | Ali | 12th August 2011

In his role as executive producer, Cowboys & Aliens represents Steven Spielberg's fourth alien movie this year, after Super 8, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and his cameo in Paul (and that's not mentioning his TV series, Falling Skies). Throw in the rest of the year's extra-terrestrial activity (get bent, Battle LA) and it's no surprise the genre is starting to look a little fatigued. More Western than sci-fi, Cowboys & Aliens at least has a hook, but when push comes to shove comes to "we have to destroy the invaders' conveniently accessible power source", it's Just Another Alien Movie like all the rest.

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Knight And Day

Movie Review | Zach | 7th August 2010

You can't help but worry about generic summer action films like Knight And Day; not because goofball Tom Cruise is the lead, but because nearly every funny or action-packed moment from the trailer passes within the first 25 minutes of the film. But don't worry - there must be something to carry the plot for the next hour and a half, right? Er, right?

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Where The Wild Things Are

Movie Review | Chris | 10th December 2009

With Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze not only solidifies his reputation as a great director (as if there were any doubt), but he also demonstrates an uncanny understanding of precisely what it's like to be a kid. With this gorgeous and touching adaptation of the beloved children's book by author Maurice Sendak, Jonze and screenwriter David Eggers have managed to capture the essence of childhood; all the confusion, fear, pain, anger, loneliness, and above all the joy of being a kid are evident throughout.

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There Will Be Blood

Movie Review | Ali | 20th February 2008

"I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people. I've built up my hatreds over the years, little by little." Meet Daniel Plainview. It's fair to say he's not exactly a people person. He is, in fact, a bit of a bastard, and that's putting it mildly. Plainview is the latest terrifying creation of actor extraordinaire ...

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