Anyone seen any betting for next year’s Oscars yet? Daniel Day Lewis seems like he’s going to get best actor anyway from reviews of his new film There Will Be Blood. It’s about oil and greed which are particularly relevant themes at the moment which will help its cause no doubt.
Michael Dwyer in the Irish Times wrote last week:
If there’s any justice in the film world, there will be Oscars for There Will Be Blood, which I’ve had the good fortune to see before it opens in the US at Christmas and here in February. Directed with tremendous accumulating power by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), the film spans the period 1898-1927. It depicts its protagonist (indelibly played by Daniel Day-Lewis) as a cold, self-made, hands-on businessman who strikes oil and makes a fortune, regardless of all those he exploits in his acquisitive greed.
Anderson’s riveting film, the strongest I have seen all year, features Paul Dano (who was in The Ballad of Jack and Rose with Day-Lewis, and Little Miss Sunshine) in a revelatory performance - and with a beatific but sinister smile - as Plainview’s nemesis, a self-appointed religious preacher. As they clash, the intense drama unfolds to a richly imaginative, aptly discordant score by Radiohead lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.
It will be astonishing if Day-Lewis does not collect his second Academy Award as best actor (after My Left Foot) for his portrayal of this misanthrope in all his sly charm, steely determination and volcanic ferocity. Day-Lewis gives a performance of staggering depth and complexity that is one of the greatest in the history of acting.
That’s heavy praise at the end.
In today’s Sunday Times Christopher Goodwin wrote:
“As the audience poured into the lobby the talk was not of whether the film would be in the running for Oscars, but of how many nominations - including certain nods for Day-Lewis as best actor and Anderson as best director…”
Plenty of reviewers reckon Johnny Greenwood will get an Oscar for his score too.
Trailer here by the way:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml2Ae2SIXac