The Playlist wonders why “almost no bloggers have chosen to write about” this Esquire story purporting to blow the lid off the secret early life of Paul Thomas Anderson. I can only speak for myself: I had no idea this story, which is dated September 22, existed. But I’ll write about it now!
Based on a skim (it’s long and I’ll go back and read it more carefully when I have time, but I wanted to pass it along regardless), it seems to be fundamentally flawed, in that it’s based on the complaints of Anderson’s high school friends and former teachers, who are all clearly bitter that their old pal no longer returns their calls, as if an acknowledged burden of success is that one must take time out of their busy modern masterpiece-making, Oscar nomination-collecting schedule to visit their old high school (does anybody actually visit their old high school?) There isn’t anything jaw-dropping here––He went to a lot of prep schools! He watched a lot of laserdisks!––but it’s an interesting read for P.T.A. completists.
I honestly don’t know what I find more disturbing. The I Drink Your Milkshake Infant Bodysuit:
Or The I Drink Your Milkshake Classic Thong:
Let’s clear our heads by contemplating whether or not P.T. Anderson meant to reference Hippolyte Flandrin, shall we?
There Will Be Blood opens Dec 26 and there’s so much to say about it. Too much, really, so we narrow it down to our favorite moments. For the holidays, the five most misguided ideas ever inserted into Christmas moviedom.
Honestly, I didn’t want to write anything about the ending of There Will Be Blood until the film is in theaters. The holidays are tough enough–I really, really don’t need the spoiler brigade on my ass to add to it. But this post by Craig Kennedy reminded me of a conversation I had earlier today with Paul and Kevin, and I have to get the thought out before it goes away. Noting that P.T. Anderson’s film currently carries a 100% Fresh rating amongst Cream of the Crop critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Craig writes:
I’m only skimming reviews until I finish my own, but one theme keeps popping up in review after review: On the surface, There Will Be Blood is unlike anything Anderson has done before…It’s like watching a runner sprinting at the limit of his ability when, just before the finish line, he kicks into another gear you didn’t even know he had and he surges ahead of the pack. It’s exhilarating.
It’s true that Anderson’s previous films were essentially ensemble pieces, which There Will Be Blood is not. And as a director, Anderson seems to have matured, in that he seems less interested than ever in showing off. But “unlike anything Anderson has done before”? I don’t think that’s true at all.
Well, I’m back from my glamorous and exciting vacation. I have too many RSS feeds to catch up on to bore you with details, but suffice it to say, my Thanksgiving adventures looked a lot like the above scene from Punch-Drunk Love, except I fortunately managed to make an escape before damaging any property. I want to thank Pamela Cohn and Chris Campbell for filling in while I was gone; if you missed their posts, you can check out Pamela’s here and Chris’ here.
Kevin Buist
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Karina Longworth
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Lauren Wissot
Sasha Grey Interview
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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