I finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood. Man oh man, I loved this movie. LOVED. Despite all the hoopla and hype (which I usually let ruin a movie for me) I feel that this is one that lives up to all the recognition pretty well. Instead of trying to explain what I liked about it so much I’m just going to list some aspects I enjoyed:

Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance
-Like countless larger-than-life Hollywood antiheros Daniel Plainview is a despicable, ruthless man, but thanks to several carefully placed scenes of quiet confession and honesty you feel sympathy for him. The difference here I think is that Daniel Day-Lewis actually makes these scenes seem honest and authentic to the character, instead of just obligatory Oscar clips.

Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack & how offkilter and uncomfortable it made me feel
- To my surprise this wasn’t a particularly violent film. Despite this while watching the movie I constantly felt the threat of violence hanging over everything. As if carnage could erupt at any moment for any number of reasons. The fact that the movie was able to sustain this feeling for almost 3 hours is I think largely a testament to Jonny Greenwood’s soundtrack and Paul Thomas Anderson’s directing

Also: 

The turn-of-the-century America setting
The ending
The beginning
Basically everything

I enjoyed it 10 times better than No Country for Old Men (which I loved) and a hundred times better than Juno (which I liked) so anyway what I’m saying is that now that I have added to the hoopla and hype you should totally go see this movie.

 PS- I know a lot of people have already said plenty about the fact that most of the major Oscars this year went to European actors. What I think is even more amusing is the fact that most of the characters portrayed (save Edith Piaf) were Americans, and that two of the movies (No Country and Blood) were especially American movies.

Basically I think it means that Europeans are better at being American than we are.