There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2007)
I'm not sure what to say about this one... other than I really, really enjoyed it. I always like when a film disrupts my programmed expectation for all movies to operate the same way, and
There Will Be Blood seems to make that its mission. There is no comfort here. The musical score alone, deliberately looming and set against insignificant shots, put me on edge (in a good way). While Daniel Day-Lewis' performance didn't captivate me as much as his Bill the Butcher, it's obvious in every tick and mannerism of the character that he does his homework and crafts roles into real people like no other. I have to say, though, I was really captivated -- or perhaps alarmed, more so -- by Paul Dano's performance as a whackjob preacher.
The whole film had a strikingly old-fashioned feel: not just in setting but in style. I would perhaps have liked some kind of direction on theme, however. The themes of the film were obvious, but the film never seems to make much of a commentary on them. Not that this was required, but at the end I did feel like the film was, in a sense, arbitrary. Still, I consider this film a wonderful period playground for the clashing of some very interesting personalities, all under the distinctly unsettling tone of the director's vision.
No Country for Old Men (Cohens, 2007)
In a lot of ways, "There Will Be Blood" is a more fitting title for this Cohen Brothers killfest. But of course, that's not all it is, and we never expected any less than painfully good filmmaking. I'm not one who generally enjoys bloody films, but at least there's some purpose to it all in
No Country. There are some really nice commentaries on serendipity versus personal choice, and all the consequences which naturally follow. But more than that, I really like how the violence of the film illustrates plainly how the world continues to set on end because people make it so, and we the bystanders and old-timers are left sitting around lamenting it and getting caught in the middle. Excellent script, captivating performances by Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones, and a wonderful, wonderful ending.
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