I love Paul Thomas Anderson. I think he could film a low-impact aerobics class at a senior center and I would pay money to watch it. He is a master at using genuine humor to underscore profound tragedy. His style carries hints of other great directors like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch, and Alfred Hitchcock. And there’s an epic quality to his films – Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love – even though, by themselves, they really don’t deserve to be epics.
There Will Be Blood is truly epic cinema. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis as an early-1900s self-made oil tycoon, and it is a simply astonishing movie. It proves that Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t need to rely on quirkiness to engross an audience; he can use plain, old-fashioned insanity.
The weakest element of the movie is the story, which is based on Upton Sinclair’s novel Oil!. The story started off good but unraveled to a puzzling conclusion. That is not what I will remember, though. I will remember the lush scenery, the fierce acting, and the gripping, atmospheric music soundtrack.
As compelling as the movie was, I don’t think ‘there will be Oscar’ for There Will Be Blood, simply because No Country for Old Men is still giving me goosebumps, three months later.
