Sundance Mopey Alienation Flick No. 4,228 is “For Ellen,” an empty angst-athon that proves 90 minutes of close-ups of Paul Dano looking wounded can be even less interesting than it sounds.
Dano plays a forlorn rock star who wanders a frozen landscape getting drunk, hanging out with his boy lawyer (“Napoleon Dynamite” star Jon Heder — why?) and having awkward discussions about his impending divorce from his wife (Margarita Levieva). Gradually, ever so gradually, it emerges that the musician aches to at least share custody of the couple’s 6-year-old daughter, Ellen.
Written and directed by So Yong Kim (“Treeless Mountain”) in imitation of “Five Easy Pieces” and “Crazy Heart,” the film seems to assume that we’ll find Dano’s lost-boy shtick interesting. But he never comes across as complicated, just tiresome, insipid and self-absorbed.