Wildlife
2018
****
Director: Paul Dano
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ed Oxenbould, Bill Camp, Zoe Margaret Colletti, Travis W. Bruyer, Darryl Cox, Mollie Milligan, Tom Huston Orr, Ginger Gilmartin, Michael Gibbons, John Walpole
In 1960s Montana, fourteen-year-old Joe watches his family begin to unravel after his jobless father leaves to help fight a devastating forest fire, while his mother seeks solace from her loneliness and financial uncertainty. Like Jonah Hill's Mid90s or Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, Paul Dano's directorial debut is a well-acted coming-of-age drama; it is not autobiographical, but adapted from Richard Ford's 1990 novel by Dano and his wife, Zoe Kazan. Although the premise is rather conventional, the resulting film ends up being moving and poignant. Carey Mulligan is reliably great as the mother, and Ed Oxenbould gives a terrific breakthrough performance as Joe.
