So Yong Kim's story about a vulnerable rocker and his daughter is music to Andrew Pulver's ears, as we continue our list of this year's top 10 films
• The 10 best films of 2013: Have your say
For Ellen arrived somewhat unheralded in cinemas, a product of the 2012 Sundance film festival; unheralded, perhaps, because of its opaque title and director So Yong Kim's track record of wispy meditations on Korean-American identity. But what a pleasure it turned out to be. It's never easy to create a plausible musician on screen – Spinal Tap has seen to that – and particularly a nail-varnish-wearing, soul patch-sporting rocker of the type that Paul Dano impersonates here.
But instead of attempting to distil a hard-partying, cooler-than-thou muso, Dano's Joby Taylor is an intensely vulnerable, childlike figure, as ineffectual as a 10-year-old. We first see him as he drives chaotically through the snow into a small American town (naturally,...
• The 10 best films of 2013: Have your say
For Ellen arrived somewhat unheralded in cinemas, a product of the 2012 Sundance film festival; unheralded, perhaps, because of its opaque title and director So Yong Kim's track record of wispy meditations on Korean-American identity. But what a pleasure it turned out to be. It's never easy to create a plausible musician on screen – Spinal Tap has seen to that – and particularly a nail-varnish-wearing, soul patch-sporting rocker of the type that Paul Dano impersonates here.
But instead of attempting to distil a hard-partying, cooler-than-thou muso, Dano's Joby Taylor is an intensely vulnerable, childlike figure, as ineffectual as a 10-year-old. We first see him as he drives chaotically through the snow into a small American town (naturally,...
- 12/12/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Fans of Jon Heder know him best from raucous comedies like Napoleon Dynamite - his 2004 breakout hit - and Blades of Glory, in which he starred with Will Ferrell. In So Yong Kim's For Ellen, which debuts on nationwide VOD today, Heder switches gears, adding an understated bit of comic relief to this quiet drama about would-be rock star Joby Taylor (Paul Dano) trying to connect with his young daughter Ellen (Shaylena Mandigo) during an ugly divorce. Heder's character, Fred Butler, is an inexperienced lawyer who lives with his mother in a small town in upstate New York. He's initially a bit enthralled with what he sees as Joby's worldliness, but he soon realizes that his sheltered world is much more his speed. We caught up with Heder in Los Angeles, where he talked about his quirky character, his shift into independent drama, and his eventual plans to direct.
- 9/19/2012
- TribecaFilm.com
Looking to reconcile her feelings about being a successful parent, wife and filmmaker with her child turning two, writer/director So Yong Kim decided to delve into the all too common reality that some only can do so when it is too late. Taking from her own experience growing up fatherless—only having ever seen him once at the age of five—her film For Ellen finds itself attempting to not decipher why someone would leave, but instead show the moment when ego and selfishness melt away to leave only the sorrow of the realization that returning is impossible. To have missed so much without but a second glance, the pain of finally discovering that love of a child can do nothing besides rip your heart out as you accept the fault that losing it was all your own.
An intriguing character study, the move to her father’s point...
An intriguing character study, the move to her father’s point...
- 9/4/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
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