There is something very subdued from Paul Dano’s directorial debut, Wildlife, that makes it a more meaningful movie than it probably is. I don’t know if there is a particular term for it other than it felt very Paul Dano-like. The man who never appears to age has delivered in a ton of movies you probably have never seen or left the theater scratching your head over (There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy, Swiss Army Man, Little Miss Sunshine, Meek’s Cutoff, The Ballad of Jack and Rose). He plays some odd characters, so why wouldn’t his directing style be similar? Interestingly, the cast in his leads one of the most underrated and diverse actors of our generation in Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch, Prisoners), who is never afraid to take a risk in a role and is one of the most talented and underappreciated actresses of the same generation in Carey Mulligan (Shame, An Education) who prefers some of the safer roles. As an aside, Gyllenhaal and Mulligan (as of March 2019) have a combined two Oscar nominations to their names. Each should have been nominated at least three times by now…a common theme in my posts is how I think Gyllenhaal has been the sixth Best Actor in a five nomination award on at least three or four occasions. In fact, my very first six-pack post was on Jake Gyllenhaal’s Top 6 Performances. Mulligan is similar, having earned a nomination for An Education, but not one for Shame, Suffragette, Mudbound, Drive…she just has fewer acting credits to her name at this point than Gyllenhaal does. The talented Dano has zero Oscar nominations to his name but should have easily received one for There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis performances are like nothing else, but this young man battled the most talented actor of the last 30 years, scene for scene, all the way up to the brutal conclusion.
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