Fantastic Fest Grinder

Closing Night Film: There Will Be Blood

Fantastic Fest ended on a high note to be sure. The secret closing night film turned out to be Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. The ominous title sounds like some thing from the Hammer vaults, but the film is actually about the Southern California oil boom in the early 1900s. Blood follows the rise of fictional oil baron Daniel Plainview, a man driven to succeed to the point that it poisons him and his relations to those around him.

Despite the film’s epic feel and the barren outdoor locations, the film feels claustrophobic, forcing you to be closer to Plainview than you want to at times. The unusual soundtrack by Radiohead guitarist, Johnny Greenwood, reinforces this too. But it is Daniel Day-Lewis as Plainview that propels the film. He is on fire here, making There Will Be Blood a must see. Day-Lewis should get an Oscar nod for this role.