Monster Music & Movies

Reviews:

There is nothing more refreshing than an already excellent filmmaker willfully taking a 180, and emerging on the other side that much better. Paul Thomas Anderson made his name crafting deeply personal, sprawling Southern California epics with intersecting, Altman-esque ensemble storylines. Boogie Nights and Magnolia nevertheless polarized audiences, as did the much more intimate Punch-Drunk Love, as Anderson was working from under the weight of (all the right) influences. There Will Be Blood toned his fanciful aesthetic way down. An ambitious oilman (Daniel Day-Lewis) gradually builds an empire at the expense of his family and sanity, but that doesn't nearly tell the whole story. Day-Lewis rightly dominated awards season for his portrayal of protagonist Daniel Plainview, a man whose carefully chosen rhetoric belies an unholy inner drive tthat only truly manifests in an explosive and brutal coda. We can't wait to see what Anderson's planning next.