I am not sure what to say about There Will Be Blood. On the one hand, it is a very beautiful, somewhat disturbing, and certainly epic film with a truly outstanding lead performance by Daniel Day Lewis. On the other, it left me confused, annoyed by that confusion, and having little idea what it was actually about.
Daniel Plainview (Day Lewis) is an oil prospector in the first years of the 20th Century, taking on the dangerous but necessary job of finding wells in California. An intense orator, he easily gets his way, buying up people’s land throughout the state. In one area, however, a young, and similarly intense, preacher called Eli (Paul Dano, the silent teenager in Little Miss Sunshine) makes his life difficult, and Plainview begins to lose his grip.
The scenes of digging for oil are electrifying. It is just so interesting to see it bubble up from ground like that, but the hideous, skull-smashing danger of the process means it is hard to even look at the screen. The film takes its time with such scenes, using long silences and Jonny Greenwood’s brooding, whirring score very effectively.
There is an immense sense of foreboding throughout the whole film, a fearfulness that stems from our fear of Plainview. Day Lewis is a boiling cauldron of violence and ferocity, producing a monumental performance that will surely go down as one of his best; he is an epic character creating an epic story around him from very little. Plainview’s son (Dillon Freasier) is an unnerving silent presence, and Dano’s Eli is an unnerving loud one.
Although I did enjoy my journey through the film, I was interrupted at various intervals as I realised I did not know what was going on. There is an issue surrounding Eli and his brother which, whilst I won’t go into it here so as not to give anything away, is very confusing, and I have still not resolved it in my own mind. It is galling because it is not really an important issue, and one that could have been easily remedied. The director, Paul Thomas Anderson, is obviously not careless, so I suppose this ambiguity must have been intentional, but the bewilderment it produced was very distracting, and I know I am not alone in feeling it.
I am also not sure about the meaning behind the film, apart from that Plainview was a bit of a loony and that greed is bad. Anderson’s previous works like Boogie Nights and Magnolia made instant emotional connections with audiences, but this film’s feelings are hidden behind a veil of both bombast and intense quiet. An outstanding mood-piece, There Will Be Blood is certainly masterful, if not quite a masterpiece.
Saturday 23 February 2008
Review - Cloverfield
The Blair Witch Project was rubbish, and unfortunately for a horror film, it wasn’t even scary rubbish. The producer J.J Abrams took a risk, then, in reusing the ‘found videotape’ device for this film, although as the creator of Lost, he knows he can make low-brow, high-concept stuff work (at least for a while). The risk paid off, for Cloverfield is one of the most enjoyable films I have seen for a long time.
The story follows a group of young, beautiful yuppie-types as they video a leaving party for one of their number, who is moving from New York to Japan. The party is interrupted by a monster attack on the city, and they continue to tape the consequential running, screaming and toppling of buildings as they try to rescue a friend. When the attack begins, it definitely makes for uncomfortable viewing, as it seems eerily close to the events of 2001. Luckily, the monster element comes to the forefront, and the emotional and physical rollercoaster the characters are going through takes your mind off it. This is a genuinely scary film; the use of a hand-held camera throughout makes it seem very real for our YouTube-dominated culture, and means that the much is left unseen and unexplained. When you do see things, they are made using good CGI.
The only problems with it are the characters. Young, happy and successful Americans are very annoying; frat boys don’t suddenly become less heinous just because they get jobs. The only ugly person in this film (excluding the giant amphibious monster) was carefully placed behind the camera, out of sight. As is traditional for horror films, the cast is made up of unknowns. They do their best with what they are working with, but the bland glossiness of the people somewhat detracts from the rest of this otherwise ground-breaking monster movie. This is the same problem I have with Lost, but luckily this film lasts only 85 minutes, rather than years and years, so it’s hardly noticeable. A terrifying tale of survival that puts you right in the action, Cloverfield is a taut thriller that deserves to be seen on the big screen by every horror fan.
The story follows a group of young, beautiful yuppie-types as they video a leaving party for one of their number, who is moving from New York to Japan. The party is interrupted by a monster attack on the city, and they continue to tape the consequential running, screaming and toppling of buildings as they try to rescue a friend. When the attack begins, it definitely makes for uncomfortable viewing, as it seems eerily close to the events of 2001. Luckily, the monster element comes to the forefront, and the emotional and physical rollercoaster the characters are going through takes your mind off it. This is a genuinely scary film; the use of a hand-held camera throughout makes it seem very real for our YouTube-dominated culture, and means that the much is left unseen and unexplained. When you do see things, they are made using good CGI.
The only problems with it are the characters. Young, happy and successful Americans are very annoying; frat boys don’t suddenly become less heinous just because they get jobs. The only ugly person in this film (excluding the giant amphibious monster) was carefully placed behind the camera, out of sight. As is traditional for horror films, the cast is made up of unknowns. They do their best with what they are working with, but the bland glossiness of the people somewhat detracts from the rest of this otherwise ground-breaking monster movie. This is the same problem I have with Lost, but luckily this film lasts only 85 minutes, rather than years and years, so it’s hardly noticeable. A terrifying tale of survival that puts you right in the action, Cloverfield is a taut thriller that deserves to be seen on the big screen by every horror fan.
Sunday 10 February 2008
Review - No Country for Old Men
This adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel contains the familiar Coen Brothers’ elements of quiet men and crimes gone wrong, but takes them to a much darker place than ever before; there are few of their trademark comic grotesques to offer relief in the unforgiving gloom of the film’s Texas landscape.
Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) disobeys Movie Rule Number One when he takes a suitcase of money that doesn’t belong to him. The resulting game of cat and mouse moves slowly, but is carried along by sudden bursts of violence. The Coens build squirm-inducing tension from the start, so it is a pity that the audience is betrayed by a low-key ending that means less than it thinks it does.
Uniformly excellent performances from the large cast make up for the few narrative faults, however. Brolin impresses as the principled-yet-greedy protagonist, and Scottish Kelly McDonald manages a flawless Texan drawl whilst sweetly playing his young wife, in what will surely be breakthrough roles for both. Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson ably fill parts made for them, but it is Javier Bardem who will live long in the memory as the psychopath on Brolin’s trail, with a terrifying method of killing his victims and an even scarier haircut.
Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) disobeys Movie Rule Number One when he takes a suitcase of money that doesn’t belong to him. The resulting game of cat and mouse moves slowly, but is carried along by sudden bursts of violence. The Coens build squirm-inducing tension from the start, so it is a pity that the audience is betrayed by a low-key ending that means less than it thinks it does.
Uniformly excellent performances from the large cast make up for the few narrative faults, however. Brolin impresses as the principled-yet-greedy protagonist, and Scottish Kelly McDonald manages a flawless Texan drawl whilst sweetly playing his young wife, in what will surely be breakthrough roles for both. Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson ably fill parts made for them, but it is Javier Bardem who will live long in the memory as the psychopath on Brolin’s trail, with a terrifying method of killing his victims and an even scarier haircut.
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