More Critical Bloodlust
It’s early yet, but Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood continues to draw a 100% Cream of the Crop rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
I’m only skimming reviews until I finish my own, but one theme keeps popping up in review after review: On the surface, There Will Be Blood is unlike anything Anderson has done before.
In my opinion, the divide between Anderson’s first four films and what he delivers with There Will Be Blood is very similar to the leap the Coens made with No Country for Old Men. It’s like watching a runner sprinting at the limit of his ability when, just before the finish line, he kicks into another gear you didn’t even know he had and he surges ahead of the pack. It’s exhilarating.
Here’s what a few more critics are saying. I haven’t read these carefully enough to check for spoilers, so read at your own risk:
Andrew Sarris of The New York Observer is happy to see it raining oil instead of frogs.
Glenn Kenny of Premiere gives it 4 stars.
Even the trades approve: Hollywood Reporter rang in back in October after Blood played Fantastic Fest in Austin and Variety added its 2 cents a month later.
Filed under: Upcoming
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Craig, it’s so interesting that you compare Anderson’s leap with TWBB and the Coens’ leap with No Country. And it’s not limited to these guys. So many directors this year pushed the envelope and delivered work that outshone anything they’d done before. I haven’t seen Sweeney Todd yet, but many are saying it’s Burton’s best work since Ed Wood (which remains my favorite of his films to this day - we’ll see if Sweeney changes my mind). I won’t list them all, but there are so many examples of this in 2007.
It’s been said to death, but I’ll say it again. 2007 has been an incredible year for film lovers.
I know! I picked a great year to start writing about movies.
Burton definitely benefited from having a strong story to tell with Sweeney. Not only that, but a story suited to his unique style.
I like your taste in movies by the way. I really hope you enjoy TWBB. Some people who will remain nameless would like you to believe that it’s a movie for men or ‘fanboys’, but I think that’s selling the movie short. If you don’t like it, I will have to reconsider that opinion however.
Thanks. :-)
I agree with you that Burton already had strong material to work with, and all he had to do was stick to it, which it sounds like he did. And it definitely suits his style and taste.
I’m looking forward to seeing TWBB and I think I will like it. Daniel Day-Lewis never disappoints and I’m also interested in the story and source material.
Besides, so-called ‘guy’ movies don’t scare me. In fact, I’m really not a big fan of ‘chick flicks’, so…
I don’t much care for being pigeon-holed because I like a particular movie.
Besides, I would never join a club that would accept me as a member.
Exactly, that’s why those terms are in single quotation marks. :-)
I kind of resent the categorization, because I actually kind of hate many so-called ‘guy’ movies.
Oh well, categorize me all you want. I love TWBB.
Two nice articles on DDL and TWBB. I’ll post them separately so the site doesn’t thnk I’m a spammer.
http://www.nyobserver.com/2007/sara-vilkomerson-s-guide-week-s-movies-p-s-i-love-you-daniel-day-lewis
And an interview:
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-en-coverstory19dec19,0,5752296.story
Thank you Alison. Those are great.
Are you getting TWBB fever??
You bet. Day after Christmas I will be at the theater.
Uh oh. Harry at CultureVulture did not like this and gave it a rotten. :-(
At least he praised DDL.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/there_will_be_blood/articles/1698702/1.php
Well, there’s no accounting for taste!
I know, but I hate seeing that tomatometer % go down.
Call me paranoid, but I actually believe that there are some critics who pan a movie for the sake of knocking it down a few notches - just because. I sense a lot of that going on with Sweeney Todd.
I’m weird, I know.
Nah, you’re not weird. Well, as far as I can tell. You could be batshit crazy for all I know. :)
I think some critics love to go against the grain. They like to be the ones to declair the emperor has no clothes because they stand out.
I haven’t read what the guy said yet because I still haven’t written my own review, but he might not be totally off the mark.
I can see a lot of room for people to disagree on TWBB. For me it was more of a visceral experience than an emotional one if that makes any sense. Many people like to have emotions to sort of hang their hats on. They like to laugh or cry or be scared. TWBB isn’t quite that kind of movie.
It will probably leave a lot of people cold, and that’s ok.
Damn. Prairie Miller hated it too. At least she’s not cream of the crop.
I’d suggest you stop reading other people’s reviews, Alison. I think a movie like this is going to have to come down to you and what happens on that movie screen. You can’t trust the critics to necessarily steer you in the right direction.
I suppose I’m being a bit presumptious so take it as you will. And maybe lowered expectations aren’t a bad thing either. I just know that I’ve given up on trusting the critics to give each film a fair shake after the way Assassination of Jesse James, Zodiac, Grindhouse, Marie Antoinette, and a number of other smaller films in the last few years have been received.
joel, I’m actually not trusting the critics either way. I have been dying to see this movie since I heard reports about it from Film Fest. I’ve actually been checking Rotten Tomatoes just to get a sense of how well it’s being received. I want the film to get a good critical response. So every time I see a rotten and the percentage go down I worry.
Though, with all the critic society awards it’s won or been a runner-up for, you’d think the reviews would follow suit. I guess Prairie Miller was out-voted.
Critics are the last people I expect to trust or be influenced by, I mean, all they do is give opinions, just like I try and do, and sometimes trash a film just because it’s doing well. I enjoy what they have to say but I don’t care to much of what they have to say. I do like it when we can come to an agreement, for example, an agreemen that There Will Be Blood is brilliant and great and one of the best films of the yar.
I shouldn’t say this because I review movies, but: never trust a critic.
:-)
I thought TWBB would be my only film this week, but it looks like I’ll be seeing CWW today, which I was planning to see eventually. It just wasn’t first on my list of films to see.
But my mom wants to see it. Since she indulged me and allowed me to drag her to see No Country on Thanksgiving I owe it to her to give in on CWW today.
That’s a very fair trade off and I predict you will enjoy CWW, especially if you like the cast or if you like Aaron Sorkin’s writing.
That’s all I will say about it until you see it.
Let me just put this out there, you people living in the US are so lucky that you get to see all these films now, in South Africa, CWW is released on February 8. 2008. How sad
Craig, I did enjoy CWW. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a good film, with solid performances all around. Tom Hanks looked miscast in the trailer, but I actually thought he did a great job. Julia Roberts as well. And Amy Adams has such great screen presence. PSH is also good and he was hysterical in this.
The trailer was crappy so I really had doubts about the film. But it was actually a good film, with a terrific screenplay. I thought the ending was fine. The audience gets the point and they don’t need to be hit over the head with it, in my opinion. There were some touching scenes, and I guess what I found to be the movie’s flaw had to do with the balance of the comedy with the drama. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been better.
I appreciated the use of “And He Shall Purify” from The Messiah, too. I’m probably the only one who cares about that, but…just saying.
You had a really similar reaction to what I had Alison. I’m glad you enjoyed it. The person I saw it with was mad because the script was more political.
I thought it was fine. It made its point but also entertained.
I do wish they’d let Wilson be a little rougher around the edges as he supposedly was in real life, I think it would’ve given the movie a little more of an edge.
The main problem was the movie had a hard time finding a consistent tone or at least balancing the range of tones it contained…which is kind of what you just said.
This is pure speculation, but I have a suspicion with this movie that they did some re-editing after the thing was almost done. This might explain why it took so long before they started showing it to the press, it would account for the stories of how the final product was missing stuff that was in the screenplay, and would also explain some of the unevenness.
Yes, there are rumors about it getting re-edited, and about them being ‘gagged’ of course.
The tone is uneven. It was funny, which was good for lightening the mood. But there were some scenes and images that affected me. If they had fleshed them out more I think it could have been a much more moving fim.
Which part did they use Handel’s Messiah? Was it when they were shooting down the helicopters?
Yes. The music over it was “And He Shall Purify” from the Messiah, one of my favorite parts of it.
Did you like that version of it? It was kind of non-traditional, wasn’t it? (no I’m not trying to sound like some kind of Messiah expert…I’m not….this is just what I’d heard)
They mixed excerpts of an instrumental version of it in with excerpts of the choral version. Other than that it sounded pretty traditional to me.
Perhaps I misunderstood what I was reading in my Messiah-know-nothingness. I’d link you to it if I could find it.
I’ve been looking for information on the soundtrack on the web, but have come up with nothing. Amazon has the soundtrack on sale, but the tracks are listed by scene (and there’s no sampling).
Sometimes with soundtracks, the only include the score that was composed specifically for the movie. There Will Be Blood for example only has the Jonny Greenwood stuff (which is all awesome), but none of the Brahms or…the other guy whose name escapes me.
I was trying to find what Brahms piece(s) they used, but I haven’t had any luck so far.
Here’s the article that questioned the Handel:
http://www.minnesotaorchestra.org/insidetheclassics/blog/2007/12/charlie-wilsons-soundtrack.html
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Hi Alison:
Actually, TWBB ended up on my Top Ten Best Movies List of 2007, but it’s a subcategory - Guilty Pleasures! Here’s the link, and you’ll see what I mean:
http://newsblaze.com/story/20071227065313tsop.nb/newsblaze/ENTERTAI/Entertainment.html
Thanks for that link, prairie miller!
And you have Assassination of Jesse James at #1 in the good section. You’re okay in my book. :-)
Prairie’s love of Jesse James certainly makes up for her unfortunate TWbB green tomato rating. But let’s not speak anymore of such unpleasantness.