You've already know my rating for it. Here's some keys to the why 5 of 5 stars.
Some movies linger after you watch them. It may be that they keep you up at night thinking about them, or it may be that you put them in the DVD player again and again. Either way you know you like it, and you know you like it a lot. It's that way with There Will Be Blood. At first, I didn't pay it no heed after seeing it. Usually, I would've passed it off as okay, but I didn't pass judgment. So it keep seeping back into my brain. "What did I feel about this flick?" And then when I told my coworker I saw it, I had to blurt out my usual star rating to give him a sense of how good the movie was. Surprisingly, it was 5 stars, and accompanying it was the saying that it was probably the best movie I had seen in a couple of years. (I forgot about The Queen although that one isn't as good relatively speaking). That's a bold statement!
The movie is very much Anderson's take on Kubrick. He's more of an Altman-esque director, but this time he chooses to do Kubrick. Shades of 2001 and The Shining are in this. 2001 because the main character, Daniel Plainview, goes through his own "Dawn of Man" sequence, a quiet look at the early trial and fortunes of Plainview. 2001 also ends with a picture of the old man, Dave Bowman, in the future. Daniel Plainview's future ends with him as an old man, but smashing skulls just as the apes in the "Dawn of Man" sequence. Finally, the effect of the bowling alley was just as Kubrickian set design for the Shining, and the ending is just as Jack Nicholson is finished off in that movie.
These influences seem brilliant, but the movie is inspired beyond that. Theirs Daniel Day-Lewis going ape. There's Paul Dano, the wacked preacher who doesn't age or the mysterious twin. He's good. There's the kid who is there scampering at Plainview's feet like mini me. He puts a nice turn in.
The movie was just pretty good in telling its story. Is it greed? Is it oil? Is it religion? It is all that and quintessentially American.
Some movies linger after you watch them. It may be that they keep you up at night thinking about them, or it may be that you put them in the DVD player again and again. Either way you know you like it, and you know you like it a lot. It's that way with There Will Be Blood. At first, I didn't pay it no heed after seeing it. Usually, I would've passed it off as okay, but I didn't pass judgment. So it keep seeping back into my brain. "What did I feel about this flick?" And then when I told my coworker I saw it, I had to blurt out my usual star rating to give him a sense of how good the movie was. Surprisingly, it was 5 stars, and accompanying it was the saying that it was probably the best movie I had seen in a couple of years. (I forgot about The Queen although that one isn't as good relatively speaking). That's a bold statement!
The movie is very much Anderson's take on Kubrick. He's more of an Altman-esque director, but this time he chooses to do Kubrick. Shades of 2001 and The Shining are in this. 2001 because the main character, Daniel Plainview, goes through his own "Dawn of Man" sequence, a quiet look at the early trial and fortunes of Plainview. 2001 also ends with a picture of the old man, Dave Bowman, in the future. Daniel Plainview's future ends with him as an old man, but smashing skulls just as the apes in the "Dawn of Man" sequence. Finally, the effect of the bowling alley was just as Kubrickian set design for the Shining, and the ending is just as Jack Nicholson is finished off in that movie.
These influences seem brilliant, but the movie is inspired beyond that. Theirs Daniel Day-Lewis going ape. There's Paul Dano, the wacked preacher who doesn't age or the mysterious twin. He's good. There's the kid who is there scampering at Plainview's feet like mini me. He puts a nice turn in.
The movie was just pretty good in telling its story. Is it greed? Is it oil? Is it religion? It is all that and quintessentially American.