Paul Dano is Excellent in "There Will Be Blood"

I saw the recent comment Quentin Tarantino made about Paul Dano and his performance in "There Will Be Blood". Let’s discuss.

I disagreed right off the bat. I adore that movie. I think it is a modern masterpiece. It is my favorite Paul Thomas Anderson movie to date. And I think that Dano, playing dual roles, is the perfect foil to Daniel Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview. But, in light of his comments I decided I wanted to go back and watch the movie. I usually watch it every year, or every other year since its release. But with the uproar and show of appreciation for Dano, and add on the fact that I have bronchitis, I decided yesterday was as good a time as any to make my revisit.

Nothing changed for me on this rewatch except I studied Dano's performance. And I came away mesmerized with how great he is in this movie. Let me say, this movie is all about Daniel Day Lewis. He gives the performance of a lifetime. He is the heart and soul of this movie and there is nothing else without him. That is what a star is supposed to do, and Day Lewis absolutely nails every single aspect of this role. He is the reason we go to see something like this. But you need the supporting actors to bring their A game as well. This doesn't work if it is just one great performance surrounded by dull and lifeless performances. Luckily for us, that doesn't happen here. Everyone is at the top of their games. Ciaran Hinds is perfect as Plainview's right hand man. Dillon Freasier as young HW does a swell job portraying an abandoned kid. He doesn't ask for that life, but he lives it to its fullest. David Willis is so meek and weak willed as Abel Sunday. Paul F Tompkins plays a dull witted townsperson who knows they need Plainview's help very well. James Downey is so reliable as the real estate gentleman that Plainview deals with. Kevin J O'Connor is slimy and creepy and seems like a crook from the moment he steps on screen. David Warshhofsky plays bewildered by Plainview's actions so well. Russell Harvard as an adult HW does some excellent work, and he happens to be deaf in real life. But it is Dano's performance first as Paul, then, especially as Eli, that truly brings this all together.

Plainview is a driven man who has a singular goal. He wants to drill for oil and drill for it everywhere he can. He knows that this will be his ticket to riches. He has that one goal in mind and anyone or anything that stands in his way is his competitor as he would say. That is what makes the role of Eli so compelling. Dano does play Eli's brother Paul, but that is one scene that gets us into the crux of this movie. Paul tells Daniel where to go to drill and then we are off. When we meet Eli he is the quintessential black oil salesman of a preacher. He proclaims that he can heal through his services and that he can speak directly to god. And people in the late 1800's and early 1900's bought that stuff up, no questions asked. And all along the way Eli is a thorn in Daniel's side. He wants a bigger chapel. Then he needs more of the workers to come to service. He claims he can heal arthritis in an old lady, but all he does is say some mumbo jumbo. He does nothing to help HW after his accident. He forces Daniel to confess his sins loudly to everyone in the church after Daniel refused to let him bless his oil rig, which was the cause of a massive fire and what made HW deaf. Daniel is constantly calling out how fake and phony he thinks all of the church stuff is to deaf ears from Eli. They have fights wherein Daniel bullies poor Eli, who then goes to his home and beats up his own father. It is such a great pairing of two very evil and two very motivated people fighting for what they believe in. This all culminates in a gory and gruesome end for Eli at Daniel's home in his personal bowling alley. And to watch this final scene, to see Eli squeal and confess, to see Daniel push and prod and make him uncomfortable, I can picture no one else doing this than Dano and rising to the level of Daniel Day Lewis. He is right there with him line for line and bar for bar. He plays it so perfectly. I still loathed him even after Plainview beat him to death with a bowling pin. And I still loathed Plainview as I had all of the movie.

So, after this most recent rewatch, Tarantino is wrong. He may not like the performance, which is totally fine. That's his prerogative. But for him to say the things he did about Dano, to call him out like he did, that is similar to what older athletes say about the newer generation. Maybe it's jealousy, maybe he truly doesn't like Paul Dano for whatever reason. But Dano is one of the best parts of this incredible movie. He is the foil we all need in this scenario and he was more than up to task. And if you still have not seen "There Will Be Blood", go watch it. It is a remarkable feat of movie making. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Guys, "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" Was Not That Great of a Movie

In an attempt to see a ton of movies that I missed while in theaters that I wanted to see, I watched "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" last night.

I do want to say, while I enjoy Quentin Tarantino for the most part, this was one movie that I wasn't rushing out the door to see. In fact, I didn't really even try to see it in the theaters. Then there was all the stuff from Bruce Lee's family, I don't think they like the way he was portrayed, and I'm a big time Bruce Lee guy, so that soured me even more. But, I saw it was on Starz the other night, and since we are all on quarantine, I figured I would record it and watch, and I did.

So, first things first, I think it is a fine movie. It isn't the usual bloody, racial epitaph flying violent movies I have come to associate with Tarantino. It is more of a love story to old time Hollywood. I also think, for the most part, the performances were solid. I loved Leonardo DiCaprio in this role. He was truly incredible, as he always is. His portrayal of an aging Western movie star was spot on. I also liked the look of the movie. It was like a neat flashback. But, outside of that, I wasn't super impressed with the movie overall.

As I said above, it is a love story to old Hollywood, and sorry mom, I know how much you like those stories, it just isn't my thing. I don't watch old westerns. I didn't watch good guys and bad guys cop shows. I am not all that in to stories from the late 60's early 70's. I am not, I don't know of it is a smart thing, or just my taste, but I'm not into movies form back then. They just aren't my thing. I mean, I love "The Godfather" parts one and two. And as you all know I love the original "Bad News Bears". But, take movies like "Easy Rider" or "Apocalypse Now" or "Annie Hall", movies people consider classics, I'm not into them. They are too long, and for me, boring. That is a personal opinion though., I'm taking nothing away from them, and their importance, hell, I get why "Citizen Kane" is so influential but I don't like that movie one bit. They're classics for a different generation I suppose. I feel like that is who Tarantino was aiming to please with "OUATIH". He wanted the boomer crowd, he wanted cinephiles like himself. That was the crowd he was going after. And that is fine, it just isn't for me.

The movie also felt very discombobulated. There was a ton of things going on, and I felt that the ending was unfulfilling. There were too many stories that didn't really connect for me. The whole first half focuses on DiCaprio and Pitt driving from lot to lot to do his crummy sitcom. The whole scene with Al Pacino at the beginning is out of nowhere, and doesn't come back until the movie is more than halfway over. Also, the Bruce Lee scene was, quite frankly, not that good. It was demeaning to Lee, and to see Pitt's character beat him up, Bruce Lee would have easily beat him in a fight. The stuff with Pitt as well, his backstory about killing his wife and getting away with it was barely even touched upon. We got one scene of them on a bat fighting, and he had some kind of weapon and we are meant to believe that is when it happened, but nothing is shown, or revealed. The Kurt Russell character felt tacked on as well. It would have been much better if he were just the narrator, for me. Also, that jump after the first hour, to 6 months later, was very jarring as I was watching. I didn't expect it, and there was a ton, too much I'd say, of information tacked on about Pitt, Pacino and DiCaprio's characters. I get it moved the story, but it could've been done better, or differently. We also saw very, very little of Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate in this movie. I like Robbie, and I thought they could have delved much deeper into her story. She barely had any lines. It was more to just show her life when she moved to LA, and how she dealt with the people around her. She could have been much more fleshed out.

I will say, the one thing I enjoyed, or thought was well done, was the ending. This movie posits a world where Charlie Manson's cronies never made it to Tate's house on the fateful night where she lost her life. Instead they end up at DiCaprio's house, and he, his wife and Pitt take care of them. I thought this was an interesting take, but I also thought they could have gone so much deeper with that as the story. I would have much rather seen the world with Sharon Tate still alive. I wonder what her career would have been like if she had lived. I feel like Tarantino could have done wonders with that story. Or, I would've liked a movie that was just about DiCaprio and Pitt's characters. Take us from their beginning to their ends. That would have been so much more fun.

I think "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" was too overstuffed and a ton of things could've been cut had Tarantino focused on one aspect of the story. But hey, this is all coming from the guy who liked "Star Wars 9", so take my opinion as you will. I just wasn't as wowed with this movie as critics and others were. DiCaprio was amazing, but that was the only true highlight for me. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.