"There Will Be Blood"
I looked the devil in the eye with his face covered with oil, and he made me weep.
I am just going to give bullet points because I know I can’t review this film in the right tone it deserves:
- DANIEL DAY LEWIS is brilliant. I love thespians (yeah, he’s a thespian, not an actor) who give everything to their craft and he so does this with Daniel Plainview.
- Why hasn’t Paul Dano been more celebrated? Geez, he was even good in a freakin’ Lifetime network movie I mean how can he be able to show his A game when DANIEL FREAKIN’ DAY LEWIS is in the same scene? He just does.
- Paul Thomas Anderson wisely shoots Plainview from the base of his neck from the back. I’m still deciphering its importance, but I can’t stop thinking about the whole “You can’t shoot the devil from the back and miss” fear that it raised for me.
- Jonny Greenwood’s score is beautiful and haunting, but poorly placed in some parts.
- The ending: FANTASTIC!
- I even cried after seeing the style and scheme of the closing credits.
This and No Country for Old Men are the best thought-provoking films that have been made in the last five years. And in hindsight, I think I liked No Country slightly more (only if three minutes from “Blood” were removed from it). Nevertheless, this film haunted me weeks after watching it and it still does.
permalink | | film | 02/05/2008
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