There Will Be Blood & Frontier(s)
So I’ve been absent for quite a while. Papers kept me busy and then the heat kept me down (still is). I saw a bunch of stuff (Brothers&Sisters s2, Bones s3, Eli Stone and some other stuff) as well as quite a few movies. However most of them were too horrible to bother with (Bordertown, Eye of the Beast, Numb, Meet the Spartans, Horton Hears a Who) and the ones that were ended up going to my top10 (Expect to see The Orphanage on my top 2007 list, coming soon and Cloverfield on my top 2008 list, due out almost one year from now). However, the above two were excellent and almost made it to last year’s top ten so I thought they deserved individual reviews.
Frontier(s)
American horror bores me now. Movies like Lake Dead and Nightmare Man make my laugh and remakes make me wish I had picked up a doc instead. So imagine my surprise to discover some great foreign horror movies like Rec (Spanish, review out soon), The Orphanage (Spanish, in my top ten 2007), Inside (French, absolute horror to watch) and this one. Due to civil unrest, a pack of thieves escape Paris to head for the border. They decide to meet up at an inn near the border which just happens to be run by a cannibalistic nazi family run by “father” and who happen to be looking for their new “mother”, a role that Yasmine (a muslim character, imagine that) happens to be perfect for.
Blood, guts and gore ensues as the quite countryside becomes the site of a massacre and quite possibly the dirtiest, grittiest and most carnal version of TCM out there. I was horribly surprised to find out this masterpiece was directed by the same guy who made such a mess out of Hitman. No taboo is left unattended and no line is not crossed and the small band of thieves and this deranged family go head to head. I know most people will label this under torture-porn and it probably should be, but for those who have not problems with the genre should have no problem enjoying this.
There Will Be Blood
For the record, I did not enjoy No Country For Old Men and it’s not because I didn’t get it’s symbolism (C’mon guys, it wasn’t all that deep. Yes, new world is ruthless), I just wish they had gotten to it in a better fashion. Paul Thomas Anderson does not make that mistake. At first glance, this does not seem like PTA movie at all. Punch Drunk Love was romantic neurotic, Magnolia was an essay on erosion of people and Boogie Nights, was just plain out fun. TWBB is quieter, deeper and has a fantastic point which it slowly drives into you’re brain. The oil well explosion was an epic scene but it had little to with the narrative, which is why the most powerful sequence was Daniel’s baptism (and of course, Eli’s follow-up confession years later). It didn’t give me satisfaction and not a lot of closure. I loved it for what it was, but what it was couldn’t find a place on my list. If you can only watch one oscar-nominated film, watch….Michael Clayton, and after that watch Sweeny Todd but after that watch There Will Be Blood.
Tags: Daniel Day-Lewis, Frontiers, No Country For Old Men, Oscar-winner, There Will Be Blood
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June 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm
[...] weirded out at the fact that TWBB wasn’t in my top ten, the truth is it almost made it. Here’s my review of the [...]