Lincoln

I was talking to a friend the other day about Spielberg and how his career trajectory has changed. In the beginning, he made really well crafted audience pleasers. Nowadays, he seems to split his time between those well crafted audience pleasers (Tin Tin and War Horse being his most recent) and making equally well crafted passion projects, like his latest film, Lincoln. The problem with the latter type of project, the one made from passion, is that, while they are well crafted, they are often times the kind of movies I like to call "One and Done". In other words, you see them once, it was enjoyable enough for you to not want to leave, and then you never have any interest in seeing it again.

While the performances were commendable, the cinematography outstanding (though, in my opinion, not as inspired as many have written), and the writing well done, Lincoln is, ultimately, kind of mediocre. While the events it covers are definitely important events in the history of America, and even the world, ultimately, it's two hours of guys arguing with each other. Honestly, the conflict of Joseph Gordon Levitt's Robert Todd Lincoln, who wanted to join the Union, but his mother and father were against it, is the closest thing the film really comes to having an interesting story.

I like Spielberg's stuff, and I think he is still a valid and creative filmmaker, but, for me, Lincoln joins the likes of Munich, War of the Worlds, and The Terminal, as a somewhat mediocre film from a filmmaker who is the standard bearer in Hollywood.

Nine

It's just about the worst time for movies in all of movie history right now. The money for independents has dried to a trickle, and the studios aren't interested in anything but remakes, re-imagining's or proven properties. It's a hard life for someone who is trying to do something even mildly original, even if they have been nominated for Oscar's for their previous work, and won countless other awards for the same work. Rob Marshall, apparently, believed that he could recapture the magic that he had with his hit stage to screen musical Chicago, in the Fellini inspired, hit Broadway musical, Nine. Unfortunately, when it didn't do as well as expected on its opening week, the studio pulled out of engagements all over the country, and now this thoroughly entertaining film will probably only be seen for the first time, by many, on DVD.

Nine is about about a director, Guido Contini (patterned after Italian director Federico Fellini), who is having a crisis trying to figure out what his next film is going to be. He has made a string of hits, and now, his production company is moving forward on his new project, a film for which he doesn't have an idea for, much less the script that everyone keeps demanding. He is forced to reckon with pretty much everyone in his life, and ESPECIALLY the many women of his life, before his creative muse will return.

Nine, I think, is a fun romp, especially for those who are fans of film history and enjoy Fellini. Daniel Day Lewis is exactly how you expect his character should be, Italian (or, at least what we think of as Italian) to his very core. The film boasts a number of incredible supporting roles, the best of which is Marion Cotillard as Contini's wife, who is constantly humiliated by his philandering ways. Penelope Cruz turns in a fun performance as Contini's mistress, and Judy Dench does a great job as one of Contini's right hand staffer's. It's hard to comment on the direction in a movie like this, because musical's are really a mixture of acting direction, choreography, and musical direction, which, most of the time, are taken care of by various people. I enjoyed Nine immensely, though, and do recommend it to people, though mostly to "film" people.

There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson hasn't made a film in a long time. His last was the, in my opinion, highly under appreciated, and often misunderstood, Punch Drunk Love. But Anderson waded through material and finally came across Upton Sinclair's Oil!, and decided that it was a good place to start. He couldn't have been more correct.

There Will Be Blood is like a modern marriage of two cinematic powerhouses. It features the amazing Mallick-esque cinematography (circa Days of Heaven), and engrossing story telling, like the best John Ford films. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, an independent oil man around the turn of the century, who, along with his young son H.W. Plainview, and a band of loyal workers, goes from area to area, buying up or leasing land and drilling for oil. Plainview is a hard man, a man who lives out of tents and shacks, willing to push himself to any extreme to get what he wants. He is an evil man. His character has some foundation in Day-Lewis' character of Bill Cutting from Gangs of New York. Both are bullies and proto-mob bosses at heart. Both want everything and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Both are willing to steam roll anyone in there way.

Plainview's business is chugging along when, one night, he gets a visit from a mysterious stranger identifying himself as Paul, and points Plainview to an area of land which he say's has oil on it, for a price, of course. When Plainview visits the Sunday ranch, to look at this prospect that Paul has sold him, he finds oil near the surface, along with a strange religious family that is lead by Paul's carbon copy brother Eli.

Plainview figures Eli for a rube whose religious fanaticism leaves him to naive to stop Plainview from taking what he wants. But this assumption leads them into a dangerous cat and mouse game which runs throughout the whole film, and will cost both of them dearly.

What can you say about this film? It was amazing. At two and a half hours long, it had me engrossed the whole time. I was amazed at Daniel Day-Lewis, as usual, and the epic nature of the film is something that you so rarely see in cinema these days. PT Anderson continues to grow in his genius and scope, and There Will Be Blood only leaves me wanting and waiting for his next film.

I also wanted to take a second to mention the amazing score by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead. The music was spare and simple, but every second of it was perfect.

Simply Amazing, all around.