“Blood” in Austin
HE reader Dan Brown saw Paul Thomas Anderson‘s There Will Be Blood at Austin’s Fantastic Fest last night, and his first reaction is that Daniel Day Lewis will indeed get an Best Actor Oscar nomination. “The film really belongs to Lewis,” he says. “He commands every frame he’s in and is a pleasure to watch. It’s a great character and he really sinks his teeth into it.”
Which is an apt phrase given that Anderson, who attended the screening and sat for a q & a session afterwards, said “he was thinking of Dracula” when he wrote Lewis’s character.
“The film is an awesome achievement,” says Brown, “and a great step forward for Anderson. A lot of the criticism being directed at Wes Anderson lately does not apply to this Anderson, who is clearly moving in different directions with each new film but still has a strong visual style.
“I know the film won’t be well received by everyone. The two and a half-hour running time might be off-putting for Middle American styrofoams but I was really into the movie right from the start.” The most interesting sounding aspect, he adds, is that “the first 15 to 18 minutes of the film are dialogue-free.”
Brown’s final comment: “I’m betting you’ll like it.”
Variety‘s Marjorie Baumgarten was also there, and has called Anderson’s film “a true American saga — one that rivals Giant and Citizen Kane in our popular lore as origin stories about how we came to be the people we are. In The Treasure of the Sierra Madre it’s not the gold that destroys men’s souls but greed; in There Will Be Blood, the commodity that drives the greed is oil.”
Can anyone confirm if the original actor playing the Eli Sunday role was fired midway during filming and replaced by Paul Dano? I remember hearing a while ago that it was someone from the film XX/XY. Other than that, completely lost on me, can’t seem to find anything online to confirm or deny.
Can’t wait. Sounds great.
Middle America’s asses are just fine. They’ll sit at Cracker Barrel for 2 1/2 hours. But let’s face the hard fact – it’s about tempting them into the seat. Once you got their ticket money, do you care how long they stick around?
Anderson hasn’t exactly made a lot of crowd pleasers, although this one looks slightly more accessible than his previous efforts.
I’m getting a little too much of the Bill Cutting vibe out of Lewis from the trailers, but I don’t have huge a problem with that because he’s one of my favorite characters of all time.
“The two and a half-hour running time might be off-putting for Middle American styrofoams but I was really into the movie right from the start.”
Anybody else finding the practice of writers going out of the way to seperate themselves from the general public annoying? Being from Pennsylvania, I know that the only way I can sit through a two hour film is if there is a transforming robot in it.
I agree that Day-Lewis seems to be playing this like a Bill The Butcher retread. Everything from the voice to the moustache just puts me in mind of Bill, which was a unique creation. Early word is that he’s chomping scenery like Bill again, as well. Maybe Day-Lewis decided to go back to the Bill template, when he realised that nobody cared when he was playing softly spoken, Scottish ex-hippies (The Ballad Of Jack And Rose). Hopefully, the film itself will turn out to be better than Gangs Of New York.
There Will Be Blood has a transforming robot in it? Awesome…
And I agree that same mustache = same character.
I hope Daniel Day Lewis takes on more roles like The Ballad of Jack and Rose. One of his best performances, he made playing a dying man in love with his daughter look effortless, when, part of me thinks it was a harder role than Gangs of New York. That being said, it looks like PTA really tried to test himself with this movie and I’m glad, because he’s the best young(ish) filmmaker in America.
I’m at a bit of a loss as to how the fabled “middle America” is all that different from, say, middle New York or middle PA, or middle Maryland, all of which I “fly over” quite a bit.
The only difference between Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco (all places I’ve lived in for more than two years, LA and NYC being my place of residence for 20 and 10 years, respectively) is the clothes people wear. There are hicks who live in Silverlake and there are hicks in Park Slope. In other words, there are ignorant, intolerant assholes everywhere you go. However, I am finding that the most egregious strain of hick tends to move towards the coasts, especially LA and NYC. There are as many interesting, progressive people in Wauwautosa, Wisconsin as there are in West Hollywood. And if you don’t understand that than you should stop gorging yourself on Access Hollywood, or, you’re just one of the hick assholes and you don’t know it yet.
as somebody who’s lived across america, there ain’t no shortage of hick mentality anywhere. i find the supposed cultural elites here have no more taste, style or enlightenment than in ohio. that would explain the success of total mediocrities like jimmy kimmel and adam corolla.
intelligent people here slobber over the crappiest tv shows ever made — go to the huffington post for endless liberal gushing over fodder like TOP CHEF and KID NATION etc. with their predictable defense of “why do WE love fill-in-the-blank?” of course, regular folk eat the same shit up in wyoming too. and much of middle america sat still for three hours during TITANIC…
MilkMan’s got it right. and, while we’re at it, can we abolish the use of ‘blue state/red state’ terminology, too? it’s lazy and misleading.
Once you’ve lumped everyone into a specific category, red or blue, they’re boring. They’re the mob.
Taken individually however, there are lots of fascinating people everywhere. Some of ‘em are even Christians and Republicans! I know it’s weird, right?
Anyway, I got a Bill the Butcher vibe off the trailer too, but it seemed turned down from 11. Besides that character was fun as hell to watch. I could go another couple of hours with Bill-light.
Christian brings up an interesting question: Can someone please explain to me the appeal of Jimmy Kimmel? I mean, I really don’t understand. At all. As far as Adam Carolla goes, his voice is so hideous, a continous loop of him saying, Hi, I’m Adam Carolla, could be used at Gitmo to extract information.
i know people of taste and quality who try to defend kimmel and corolla to me. they both represent a middle of the road thought process, unhampered by wit or insight or entertainment. of course, as refugees from THE MAN SHOW, would you expect more? and corolla may have the single most grating voice on the airwaves.
oddly, both are republicans.
They tap into the same current of anti-intellectualism that rears its head from time to time and elects presidents. They’re depoliticized but it’s the same thing.
It’s ok in small doses.
Why are you guys discussing Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla? Should I talk about the shit I took this yesterday?
“They’re depoliticized but it’s the same thing.”
remember cj, abc fired thinker bill maher to put on fratboy jimmy kimmel.
Maher was a double whammy: Thoughtful AND political. Kimmel is neither, hence perfect.
You can talk about whatever you want George. Thread’s dead, baby. Thread’s dead.
“Can anyone confirm if the original actor playing the Eli Sunday role was fired midway during filming and replaced by Paul Dano? I remember hearing a while ago that it was someone from the film XX/XY. Other than that, completely lost on me, can’t seem to find anything online to confirm or deny.”
Yeah, Kel O’Neill from XX/XY and who played the guy who knocked up Amber Tamblyn in STEPHANIE DALEY had the role first but was fired for wanting too much money or something. A shame, as he is a really good actor. The funny thing is that Paul Dano looks nearly exactly like him.
Am I the only one that thinks this looks like DAYS OF HEAVEN??
sexe
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