REVIEW: There will be milkshakes

Quite possibly one of the greatest cinematic events
of my life, “There Will Be Blood” is an exploration
of power, oil and how greed can completely overtake
a person. And it is amazing.

At the risk of sacrilege, I will be bold enough
to say Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as Daniel
Plainview is even better than his Bill “The Butcher”
Cutting in “Gangs of New York.” Bill the Butcher is
a static character throughout “Gangs of New York.”
Bill is crazy, but he is consistently crazy throughout
the film. With Daniel Plainview, Day-Lewis begins
as an ambitious but loving single father who slowly
descends into madness and greed. If Day-Lewis does
not receive the Academy Award for this movie,
there is no justice in the world.

Paul Dano delivers a great performance as Eli
Sunday, the town’s resident crazed-evangelist
preacherman. Dano should receive a medal just
for being able to have acting chops that measure
anywhere close to Day-Lewis’ (unlike Cameron Diaz
in “Gangs of New York”). Dano might even have
gotten a nomination had he not been overshadowed
by Day-Lewis’ performance.

In my book, Day-Lewis officially has taken the
“actor’s crown” from Robert De Niro. Whatever
doubt I had officially has been erased from my
mind. De Niro hasn’t starred in a decent movie since
“Ronin,” and that was 10 years ago. I’m sorry, but
“Meet the Fockers” just doesn’t cut it. Day-Lewis
is very picky about his work (in my lifetime, he’s
only been in 12 movies), and that is because of the
quality of his acting. You won’t see him starring
in the likes of that miserable film “Hide and Seek”
anytime soon.

The soundtrack of “There Will Be Blood” is
composed by Radiohead guitarist and resident
noisemaker Jonny Greenwood. What Greenwood
does with the string orchestra is extremely impressive;
he makes a sound that is both alien and fits
the period setting.

At first the score seems out of place, but about
halfway through the movie (probably when Plainview
strikes oil), I adjusted to the experimental
nature of the score and couldn’t wait to download
it to my iTunes when I got home.

“There Will Be Blood” is not a masterpiece
entirely. It has a few problems, but it is definitely
one of the best movies to come out in a while.
The movie is rather long, running 2 hours and
40 minutes. Normally I have trouble with long
movies (I thought I would kill someone during
“Mystic River”), but I honestly didn’t even notice
the length of this film.

The milkshake scene is one of the funniest
scenes ever in a dramatic film (comparable to the
“You think I’m funny” scene in “Goodfellas”), and
the ending is one of the most satisfying in cinema
history.

Grade: A-