Five performances that make Paul Dano a modern icon
The cinematic medium has seen several key figures come to the fore throughout the beginning of the 21st century, so many so that it can be easy to forget just how many modern icons of film there are today. However, no one can forget the brilliance that Paul Dano has shown over the last few decades.
The New York-born actor made his Broadway debut at the age of just 12 at the beginning of the third millennium, and shortly after, he appeared in a handful of TV shows like Smart Guy and The Sopranos. Before long, though, Dano set the cinematic world alight, beginning with 2001’s L.I.E.
Since then, Dano’s performances have grown in stature, with each embodying the intensity and versatility that ought to be expected of a master actor. With striking attention to detail and an ability to capture the most nuanced facets of human psychology, Dano has undoubtedly emerged as one of the greatest stars of his generation.
We’ve compiled a short list of five times that Dano announced himself as a modern cinema icon. From portrayals of unbridled teenage angst to showings of shocking religious fervour, here are some of the greatest moments of Paul Dano’s brilliant career.
Five iconic performances by Paul Dano:
Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
Perhaps the most fearsome performance of Dano’s career came in the Denis Villeneuve thriller Prisoners, in which he played Alex, a mentally challenged young man who is accused of abducting two young girls. However, there’s a sympathetic quality to Dano’s effort, especially as he is beaten to a pulp by Hugh Jackman’s character, the father of one of the girls.
As someone who speaks little, Alex, in the hands of Dano, is someone who has an air of mystery about them, which makes us wonder whether he is indeed guilty of abduction. What Dano proved through his turn for Villeneuve was an ability to navigate the most troubled and psychologically complex characters, inviting us in the process to examine our own morality.
The Batman (Matt Reeves, 2022)
By this point, there have been that many movie versions of Batman, that it can be hard to keep track of who has played what. In Batman Forever, Jim Carrey famously played Riddler, but in Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattison-starring The Batman, the role of the infamous villain was handled with care and intensity by Dano, who delivered sheer and unsettling menace.
There’s a quality of pity to Dano’s Ridder performance in how his obsession to wreak havoc on Gotham City is caused by his need to prove his intelligence to Batman. What’s most impressive about Dano’s effort is how he captures the nuances of the film’s antagonist with an air of realism, departing from the larger-than-life versions of previous actors.
Love and Mercy (Bill Pohlad, 2014)
Playing Brian Wilson, the creative genius behind the Beach Boys, is one hell of an acting task, but Dano pretty much mastered his craft with his performance as the iconic musician with well-documented personal and mental struggles. Dano’s effort is simply transformative and had him detail Wilson with all his personal mannerisms and physical idiosyncrasies.
As Wilson sets about creating the Beach Boys’ masterpiece, Pet Sounds, Dano explores his inner emotional turmoil that results from the band’s rise to fame and the musician’s sudden thrusting into the spotlight. In Love and Mercy, Dano yet again showcased his versatility, taking on a role of serious cultural importance at that time.
Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton, 2006)
While Dano’s major debut film performance came in 2001’s L.I.E., it was his remarkable effort in 2006’s comedy drama Little Miss Sunshine that announced him to a wider audience and showed that he was an actor who would be in the limelight for many years to come. Dano took on the difficult challenge of playing a teenager who has taken a vow of silence, so the first part of the film is one of quiet communication.
That intensity bubbles and erupts, though, when Dwayne Hoover’s dream of becoming a pilot is destroyed and what follows is an outpouring of frustration, teenage angst and alienation from Dano in what remains one of his best-ever turns. There’s a vulnerable poignancy to Dano’s performance in the heartwarming Little Miss Sunshine that largely steals the show from a very impressive cast.
There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
If there was even an inkling of doubt as to Dano’s quality in the mid-2000s, it was all said and done with the Paul Thomas Anderson drama There Will Be Blood, in which the actor plays a pair of identical twins. One of the twins, the preacher Eli Sunday, plays a significant part in Daniel Day Lewis’ character, Daniel Plainview’s life, providing a spiritual counterpoint to his ruthless oil charge.
One side of the performance as Eli sees Dano command his congregation with religious fervour during his sermons, but the other has him seemingly manipulate Plainview, trying to make profit from California’s new wealth of oil, all the while coming across as pious and proper. Intensity runs through Dano’s effort and it somehow matches even the genius of Daniel Day-Lewis.
