Great directorial debut

I've been loving Paul Dano unabashedly for 2 decades at this point. He is a phenomenal actor who picks his projects wisely. He rarely, if ever, does a film unless it's just perfect for him.

Unrelated to my Dano worship, I've been going through Carey Mulligan's work in the wake of seeing Promising Young Woman, which blew me away. I found this film when searching through her filmography, rather than Paul's. I'm so glad I watched this.

If you had asked me who should star alongside Carey Mulligan in a film set in 1960 America, Jake Gyllenhaal would absolutely have been my first choice. He had me at October Sky and Donnie Darko, but Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners, and especially Nightcrawler pushed him into an almost untouchable level of greatness for me.

Paul Dano co-wrote this film with his partner Zoe Kazan, who is also a very good actor. I really liked their collaboration on Ruby Sparks.

Ed Oxenbould was new to me, but he is wonderful in the movie. This is the part Paul would play if he were the right age, and you can feel Paul through his character every step of the way.

All in all, this movie gave me everything I was hoping it would and then some. Very impressive for a first time director.