Paul Thomas Anderson's fifth feature, and his first since 2002's Punch Drunk Love, doesn't open in the US until late December and next year in the UK. Since I was lucky enough to see it the other night, followed by a relaxed Q&A session with Daniel Day-Lewis, I thought I'd toss out a few opinions for you to chew over, rather than write a full-blown review. Suffice to say the film is a remarkable achievement, with a towering performance from Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a gold prospector turned successful oil man, and a marvellous supporting turn(s) from Paul Dano who played the unspeaking son in Little Miss Sunshine. Loosely inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil, Anderson's first film set outside LA is, as Variety called it "boldly and magnificently strange", with Day Lewis' Plainview a complex, self-obsessed, self destructive, malevolent man, seemingly set on destroying any links to the rest of humanity. Will it win him another Oscar? Maybe. Although my money's on someone else.
Wednesday 21 November 2007
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's fifth feature, and his first since 2002's Punch Drunk Love, doesn't open in the US until late December and next year in the UK. Since I was lucky enough to see it the other night, followed by a relaxed Q&A session with Daniel Day-Lewis, I thought I'd toss out a few opinions for you to chew over, rather than write a full-blown review. Suffice to say the film is a remarkable achievement, with a towering performance from Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a gold prospector turned successful oil man, and a marvellous supporting turn(s) from Paul Dano who played the unspeaking son in Little Miss Sunshine. Loosely inspired by Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil, Anderson's first film set outside LA is, as Variety called it "boldly and magnificently strange", with Day Lewis' Plainview a complex, self-obsessed, self destructive, malevolent man, seemingly set on destroying any links to the rest of humanity. Will it win him another Oscar? Maybe. Although my money's on someone else.
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5 comments:
This is fantastic news! I love the first trailer that showed up on YouTube, and the idea of PTA handling a story of this nature is really very appealing to me. DDL looks fantastic, but I've a sneaking suspicion I have my Best Actor hopes pinned to the same individual as you do...
Day Lewis is not from this world. Absolutely awesome, he can put a movie up in the sky with his acting.
Talking about the Oscars... do you think Sweeney has real options?? I mean, I heard the same enthusiastic comments on Big Fish and we all know what happened... only one nomination.
Adiós! :)
Mark says all the right things... :)
That's very kind of you to say, thank you. And thanks too for the link on your site.
I have always felt Big Fish deserved more recognition than it was given, like I think Johnny should have had at least a nomination for Ed Wood (ditto Tim, and Scott and Alex, the writers).
But as last year showed, when Emmanuel Lubezki didn't win for his amazing work in Children Of Men, you never can tell with this Oscar lark.
That said, my fingers remain crossed...
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