Underappreciated?

Drew Taylor of moviefone seems to think so.

Paul Dano scored a minor indie hit over the summer with the effervescent "Ruby Sparks," but he clocked in his best, most nuanced performance this year in "For Ellen," a postage stamp-sized indie from "Treeless Mountain" director So Yong Kim. Dano plays a barely functional rock star (his band seems to be on the brink of breaking up), forced to return to a snowy midwestern town to take part in divorce proceedings. It's here that he attempts to make some kind of connection with his young daughter (Shaylena Mandigo). That's pretty much all there is in terms of plot. But that doesn't matter. What does is how beautiful Kim stages the interactions between the young girl and her father, and the absolute emotional devastation that can be brought about by the simplest, starkest scenes of them together. Dano has never been better (yes, even in "There Will Be Blood"), and non-actor Mandigo brings a heartbreaking realism to the role of the young girl. Ironically, "For Ellen," a movie about a man who's constantly on the move, is one that stays with you for a very long time.