There Will Be Blood

[Nighthawk 0]

I've seen it twice now too.

 

The first was in Berkeley (and if you know Berkeley, it's the liberal college town arm of San Francisco), so that crowd ate it up, and gave mad cheers for the "God is a superstition" part. The second was in a more normal suburb, and they seemed to like it a lot too, but less enthusiastically. It would also be interesting to see it in various different locations to judge the reactions.

[Ravenbomb 0]

That was...something else. Definately on my top 10 for 2007.

[cabbageboy 0]

Ah crap. I was looking forward to seeing it but I looked in the paper and it's only on at Baxter Ave. and Stonybrook (much like No Country was). Hopefully it will expand to some other theaters here, or else I might have to go out of my way to see it.

[godthedog 0]

paul thomas anderson is now officially a better filmmaker than quentin tarantino. i thought 'pulp fiction' would always keep tarantino ahead, but i was wrong. THIS is how you follow up on two great 90s movies: by not making a stale retread of your earlier 90s movies.

 

this doesn't mean it's a better movie than 'pulp fiction'--just that anderson now has a more impressive and varied body of work.

[King Kamala 0]

I really enjoyed this one. I'd put it only behind No Country For Old Men in terms of Best Movies of '07 but I wasn't impressed with Paul Dano. I can sort of admire what he was trying to go for but he just went way over the top. Daniel Day-Lewis was of course absolutely brilliant.

[cabbageboy 0]

I don't really get the Anderson and Tarantino comparison. Anderson doesn't really have his own "style" per se, as in I couldn't define to you what a PTA film is really. Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love....there might be some similarities but Tarantino has his own particular style that we expect. In some ways that limits QT as a director.

 

Anyway I definitely want to see this, it's just a matter of when and where.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

There Will be Blood was a great film and I'd rate it ahead of No Country for Old Men because the ending was more satisfying and Daniel Day-Lewis gave one of the best performances I've seen since Christian Bale in American Psycho. I have absolutely no complaints about Paul Dano's performance because honestly, it's hard for anyone to look like a great actor when they share 90% of their scenes with Daniel Day-Lewis. It's kind of like how none of the other actors really stood out in American Psycho because Bale's performance was so dominant.

[Nighthawk 0]

I thought Willem Dafoe was pretty good in AP. But hey, that's Willem fucking Dafoe. In an uncharacteristically understated performance, too.

[Jericho2000Mark 0]

I agree, American Psycho had some good supporting performances but you don't really notice them until the third or fourth viewing.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Saw this today and, to my surprise, it left me uninterested. Loved the first act, but didn't find much that stuck with me outside of that. The movie seemed alternately obvious and blank, great production values and cool score aside.

[dubq 0]

FINALLY saw it last night. Fucking LOVED it!

[DMann2003 0]

This is currently my pick as Best film of 2007. I love films that are almost operatic in tone and this film was very much like that. A film about sweeping and all consuming ambition and greed. Not just financial greed, but greed for power, for control, for respect. All tied up in a tornado of a performance by Daniel Day-Lewis. I sat transfixed for 2 1/2 hours, and I feel so grateful that I've got to grow up watching a filmmaker like PT Anderson grow through his films and emerge as a powerful voice in American cinema. Like what it most have felt like in the 70's to see the rise of Altman and Scorsese.

 

I want to see this film a couple more times in the theater, I want to experience it with different audiences. I want to own it on DVD and just allow myself to be swept up in its epic storytelling again. I haven't felt this fully amazed by a picture since L.A. Confidential over 10 years ago.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah I saw this a week or so ago and liked it better than NCFOM. Maybe it was just Daniel Day-Lewis ruling more than anyone has ever ruled, or maybe I found it a bit more satisfying at the end (though this ending certainly doesn't wrap things up).

 

I think DDL winning best actor is obvious and PTA may well win best director since they might not want to give it to two people (Coens). Best picture I dunno about so much. It might almost be viewed as too much of a one man show.

[Nighthawk 0]

As far as awards talk, I'd give best picture to No Country. TWBB should get actor and director. Javier Bardem has supporting actor locked up, so that should be fair. They were easily my two favorite movies this year. I slightly prefer No Country.

 

The interesting contest between the two is adapted screenplay. No Country was very close to the book, while TWBB really wasn't at all. A case could be made favoring either approach.

[dubq 0]

I want to see this again, as well. Honestly, for me, this movie was cinema at it's finest.