Wildlife Is A Quietly Haunting Portrait of Family Chaos from Newbie Director Paul Dano

Hollywood, when it comes to non-indie fare, has always seemed to struggle with what to do with Paul Dano as an actor, usually putting him in the roles of either a disposable sidekick (Knight & Day) or a whiny slimeball (Cowboys & Aliens). Despite that, Dano has managed to procure a number of memorable performances over a little over a decade of steady work in offbeat indie fare like There Will Be Blood, Love & Mercy and Swiss Army Man, to name just a few. Over the course of a quietly impressive acting career, Paul Dano's become quite a fascinating actor and now we can add talented director to his resume with his directorial debut Wildlife.

A Tour De Force Awaits For Those Who Watch There Will Be Blood

If there's one common fixture in the last three movies made by Paul Thomas Anderson, it's an affinity for going into decades past of American culture and probe at the darker underbellies of these time periods. Back in 2012, for instance, he released The Master, a movie set in the 1950's, a time period typically associated with lovely picnics and white-picket fences that was here used as a backdrop as the story for a World War II soldier trying to find a post-combat purpose in the world. The film he made just prior to The Master, There Will Be Blood, is also a part of this trend, with this 2007 directorial effort of Anderson's being set in the first few decades of the 20th century.