FOR ELLEN

Paul Dano is outstanding, (when is Paul Dano anything less than outstanding), as the rock star on a road trip to see his young daughter, Ellen, (the extraordinary Shaylena Mandigo). The Korean director So Yong Kim made this very American film and, like so many other 'outsiders', brings a very astute eye to both the characters and the landscape as well as paying homage, in its closing shot, to one of the great American films of the seventies.

Not a great deal happens but the films emotional core is very strong thanks, in large part, to Dano's extraordinary performance. He's never really off the screen and he dominates virtually every shot. His lack of an Oscar nomination is still something of a mystery to me. In the small but telling part of Dano's lawyer, a mother's-boy infatuated with his client, Jon Heder is also outstanding. Both these performances are Oscar-worthy but "For Ellen" is a small, independent film that never received the distribution it should have so not many people saw it. If you are one of those who allowed it to pass you by, seek it out; you certainly won't regret it.