There Will Be Blood
November 29th, 2007
There will be puns, there will be awards, there will be awesome. Based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, Paul Thomas Anderson (whose movies I often failed to appreciate in the past) has made a magnificent epic about the price of the precious resources, liquid and otherwise, that we extract from the ground — and from other people. Daniel Day-Lewis is reliably fantastic as Daniel Plainview, a prospector turned wealthy oilman and all-around American monster, but the real stunner here is Paul Dano as his nemesis, the pimply-faced fire-and-brimstone preacher Eli Sunday.
This one’s got “movie of the year” written all over it, and I’m already itching to see it again as soon as possible. We’ll have much more on this before the December 26 release. I drink YOUR milkshake!
UPDATED: My gushing review is now up at About Worldfilm.
There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007. *****
- Karina Longworth found two tacks from the terrific score, and here’s the latest trailer:
A Girl Cut in Two
September 22nd, 2007
Chabrol’s latest is a delicious love triangle between a pompous writer (François Berléand), a wealthy fop (Benoît Magimel), and the “divine” TV weather girl (Ludivine Sagnier) who loves them both. Funnier than most of Chabrol’s films, A Girl Cut in Two fascinates with deft characterizations and, of course, the trademark plumbing of depravity gaping beneath the bourgeois veneer. Sagnier shines as Gabrielle Deneige, luminous while wearing a motorcycle helmet, a red evening gown, or nothing but a plume of peacock feathers. We’ll have a full review on About.com soon.
La Fille coupée en deux. Claude Chabrol, 2007. ****
