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There Will Be Blood (2007)
A distinctly American masterpiece
Like F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" or Modest Mouse's "The Lonesome Crowded West", "There Will Be Blood" is a distinctly American masterpiece. Its overriding themes of religion, greed, family and loneliness converge to evoke a desperation that could only have come from the oil rush gripping our country in the early 1900's. "There Will Be Blood" is a sprawling epic nourished through the umbilical of oil barons, railroads and the vast, desolate West.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson ("Magnolia", "Punch-Drunk Love"), the film is a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" However, only the film's atmosphere and landscape are informed by Sinclair's portrayal of the oil business. The actual plot of "Blood" is wholly different, an intricate story of fictional oil entrepreneur Daniel Plainview and his battle with the disordered world that surrounds him.
Plainview is a misanthropist who paradoxically seeks companionship even as he loathes mankind in general. His investment in oil is motivated entirely by his desire to earn enough money to escape civilization altogether. He loathes religion, dismissing it as a superstition, and entertains human interaction only when he calculates that it is crucial to his oil mining. Daniel Day-Lewis' ("Gangs of New York", "My Left Foot") gripping portrayal of Plainview cannot be over-estimated. His willful stage presence lends the film a searing intensity that both counteracts and complements the film's measured pacing.
Yet while the story is certainly rich with detail and subtlety, There Will Be Blood is hardly a film of words. At times fifteen full minutes will pass without any dialogue at all. The space that fills these stretches of silence greatly enhances the film's sense of space and desolation. Even when characters do speak, nobody says more than necessary. Words are carefully chosen and tersely delivered, and there is much to be read between the lines.
Instead of leaning on dialogue, much of the film's force comes from its gorgeous cinematography. Meticulously detailed and breathtakingly beautiful, There Will Be Blood is visually arresting from the film's beginning to its conclusion. Similarly, the score (composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood) greatly accentuates the film's most dramatic moments. Yet while the music itself is impeccable, the way that Anderson employs it is even more impressive. Violins and sparse percussion rise and fall at unexpected moments, carefully cultivating a sense of unease while still managing to feel natural and well considered.
Perhaps the most incredible thing about "There Will Be Blood" is its minimalism. In spite of its long runtime (which approaches three hours), the film never feels indulgent or overly complex. Anderson slows down the pacing of the film to a deliberate lurch. This might frustrate impatient viewers, but the approach is ultimately makes the film's several climaxes more rewarding and its emotional peaks more stunning.
"There Will Be Blood" is both visceral and cerebral, the rare film that combines the raw emotion of our most human instincts with smart, well-conceived film-making techniques. Well worth the hype and capable of meeting even your wildest expectations, Anderson's latest is truly a masterpiece of American cinema.
Juno (2007)
A shallow, poorly considered exploitation of these important issues
At first blush, "Juno" seems like a pretty great movie. It's entertaining and lots of fun to watch. There's a great cast, and each of the film's characters are well-sketched and interesting. First-rate cinematography keeps the film colorful and engaging from start to finish. There are more than enough quirks, witty dialogues and obscure name-droppings to keep the hipsters placated. Perhaps it's just a bit pretentious and tries just a bit too hard, but these flaws could be overlooked. The movie should have been a charming little indie-lite film.
But it's not. Ultimately, I stepped out of the theater feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. The problem is that "Juno" tackles two very relevant issues in today's society - namely, abortion and teenage pregnancy - and utterly fails to address either in a way that is realistic or compelling. Now, maybe it's unfair to expect Juno to make a decent exploration of these complex themes. It's just a comedy, after all. However, even as many critics praise the movie's keen humor and witty banter, it's hard not to get caught up in the fact that this movie painfully abuses these highly relevant issues.
In one particularly wince-worthy scene, Juno's stepmother tells off an ultrasound technician for indicating that teenage mothers are less capable of taking care of their kids than adults. She argues that teenagers could be just as devoted to their children as their adult counterparts, and that she should stick to the things that she knows about. Instead of defending her position, the technician wordlessly exits while Juno, her friend and her stepmother exchange verbal high-fives.
The film makes offers no exploration of the ultrasound technician's completely valid viewpoint. Are teenagers ready to leave school to get a job and start supporting a dependent of their own? Are these kids really mature enough to tackle these issues? Should they have to? Does the amount of devotion to the baby really matter when you can hardly afford food and shelter? These relevant questions are left unasked. The scene is telling of either the director's ignorance or else his pointed attempt to skew facts to make a point, and neither shines well on the movie.
Juno MacGuff seems to be living in a dream world. Never mind her ridiculous vocabulary or unrealistically snappy sarcasm her parents barely react to the news of her pregnancy, she almost effortlessly finds parents to adopt her unborn child (in a newspaper want ad, no less), the legal issues are smoothed out in the span of 30 seconds and Juno's social ostracism is hinted at but hardly explored in any meaningful way. Instead of getting a believable portrayal of teenage pregnancy, the film offers the pretentious name-dropping of hip punk bands. At one point, Juno actually says "Sonic Youth is just noise" as a biting insult. It's all a tad ridiculous.
At the end of the day, perhaps none of this should interfere with enjoyment of the movie. Perhaps one should gloss over the film's aggravating biases and enjoy what is otherwise a great film. However, the fact remains that Juno passes itself as an artsy independent film about teenage pregnancy and abortion, but it is little more than a shallow, poorly considered exploitation of these important issues.