Filed under: movies | Tags: coen bros, daniel day lewis, jonny greenwood, pt anderson, there will be blood
I had so been looking forward to this movie and had to bide my time to see it.
However, on a wet Monday afternoon in Glasgow my chance arrived.
PT Anderson is right up there among my favourite directors of all time with Magnolia in my top 5 films, ever! News of Daniel Day Lewis’ performance and his (as it turns out justified) favouritism for the Best Actor Oscar only added to my anticipation.
The film’s position as No. 23 EVER on IMDb’s review list (my filmic bible) meant it had to be a total classic.
So I’m afriad I have to beg to differ.
Whilst much of it amazes there is just too much indulgence in this movie. The first 20 minutes when, famously, not a word is uttered feels to me like film wank. It is overlong as well and I felt the cinematography failed to reach the top drawer; it’s simply too dark in places.
The theme of greed is interesting but it feels a bit derivative of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand – the famous book of the 50′s – although I gather the inspiration was drawn from a little known novel called ‘Oil’. And there are rather too many moments where Daniel Plainview played, mostly magnificently, by Daniel Day Lewis, is symbolised as the Devil incarnate sheathed in shards of flame and plumes of smoke. OK PT, we get it…
The context in which this greed is acted out is Oil Boom America (the first third of the last century). It centres around an oil prospector’s run ins with an unnamed fundamentalist Christian outback church.
The parallels between Bush and Iraq are not difficult to see.
Whilst the congregation may be innocent worshippers, the relationship between the young pastor (Dano) and Plainview, is the real axis of the movie and it meets with mixed results. Partly because Dano’s performance is not 100% convincing. Close, but no cigar.
Indeed the denoument was, I thought, verging on the absurd.
Daniel Day Lewis’ descent into madness is well observed and he manages to avoid the excesses of Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. However, having seen most of the big movies of the year his was probably the best male lead performance – although I felt Ellen Page in Juno and Javier Bardem in A Country For Old Men were better, purer, more believable constructs.
Which brings me to my final point. The Coen’s movie beats it hand down on every level except for the score, which is stunning.
Jonny Greenwood was responsible and this is the standout moment…
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Verdict? 7/10. (Still an A in old money, but I was expecting a straight 10)
Filed under: Arts, gigs, music, videos | Tags: boys and girls in america, chips ahoy, Glasgow live, hold steady, stuck between stations
This great band from Brooklyn NYC were in Glasgow last night playing at The Garage. Ian Dommett and I attended and were blown away by their passion, energy and sheer musicianship. An outstanding gig by a top notch band.
They even did Chips Ahoy justice. Boys and Girls in America, the first encore was peerless.
And Stuck Between Stations? Well, judge for yourselves.
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The support were excellent too, look out for them. Good old Rock and roll. The Haze, from Maybole,
First single out next month.
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Filed under: life, science, stories | Tags: greenland, Nobel, Nobel science prize, Prof Cary Fowler, seeds
You probably heard about this guy’s life work, setting up a seed store 150 metres into a mountain in Greenland on the news yesterday.
I think this is really a very important piece of scientific persistance and it smacks, to me at least, of Nobel Prize winning work.
The essence of his idea is that all of the world’s seeds are collected in one place; in theory, at least, the situation is immune from earthquake, nuclear war, global warming’s greatest extremes and power cuts.
One can never know the potential value of this, but it is hard to underestimate.
Good on you mate (and the Norwegian Govt).
It’s hard to take people with you to do what is the right thing.
