by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   He may not look like your typical American leading man, but actor Paul Dano, 31, is likely a next Oscar contender for Best Actor come the Academy Awards presentation next year. Dano, who celebrated a birthday this month, is indelible as a younger Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, though this latest is just a topper among many gripping performances. If you turn back the clock 10 years to The Ballad of Jack and Rose from writer-director Rebe...

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Review: …and a Dame Who Kills Comics icon Frank Miller and director Robert Rodriguez return nine years after their first trip to Sin City, a four-story compendium outing that had Quentin Tarantino as guest director and Frank Miller in a cameo, as a priest. It was a highly unlikely partnership. Their association began when Miller got a call from Robert Rodriguez (Spy Kids 1 and 2, Desperado). Rodriguez made him a simple offer: Come to Texas for a day. If yo...

                                My experience of the Santa Barbara International FIlm Festival began Saturday morning at the Lobero Theatre with JC Chandor (Margin Call), Tate Taylor (The Help), Jim Rash (Descendents) Will Reiser (50/50), and Mike Mills (Beginners). The artists spoke passionately & candidly about their writin...

500 Days of Summer takes an unusual approach to a love story in that it isn’t one – and it tells you so up front.  What it is instead is an honest look at the course of a relationship when only seen from one person’s point of view, however skewed that might be.  From heart-warmingly fun and flirty, to heart-crushingly panicked and confused, anyone who has been half of a couple will relive the emotions of first dates and first fights and much of what lies between the two - and perhaps w...