Tag: Daniel Day-Lewis

Dramas

There Will Be Blood

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: There Will Be Blood, 2007

There are some movies, no matter how many times I try to watch them, and how many people encourage me to “give it another chance,” I will never enjoy watching. Apocalypse Now is one, Down With Love is another. Before this week, I would have put There Will Be Blood (Disc/Download) on that list. That’s how much I disliked it the first time around. Seventeen years later (eight of them spent watching a self-serving, spray-tanned false prophet rise to political power), and I’m ready to revise my opinion. Turns out, There Will Be Blood is a great movie.

I can’t even explain how much of a relief it is to feel this way. For years, I’ve had to qualify my adoration of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies with, “They’re all perfect! Well… except for There Will Be Blood.” At long last, there is no caveat; I finally “get” this movie. Maybe I had to fall in love with Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock: fussy couturier of The Phantom Thread before I could love him as Daniel Plainview: prospector, oilman, and all-around greedy sonofabitch. Whatever the reason, I simply can’t get enough of his performance. The voice, the movements, the intensity; I’m all in. I particularly love the moment when Daniel realizes his nemesis, small-town preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), is just as much of an opportunist and performance artist as he is. In the span of a few seconds, you see his expression change from one of boredom, to skepticism, to recognition. There can be only one liar-in-chief on these oil fields, and it’s almost inevitable that the other one is drained dry before he even knows what happened.

Speaking of draining, most people are familiar with the famous line, “I drink your milkshake!!!”, spoken to illustrate the point that the land below an untapped oil field has already been drained. You could certainly mix up a boozy milkshake for this movie, but I prefer to make a drink that speaks to a rough, bloody life on the California oil fields at the turn of the 20th century. I use Liber & Co.’s Blood Orange Cordial in so many cocktails, and it’s perfectly on-theme here. While watching There Will Be Blood, I recommend drinking a Blood Sacrifice.

Blood Sacrifice

2 oz Bourbon

1 oz Lemon Juice

½ oz Blood Orange Cordial

¼ oz Apricot Liqueur

¼ oz Cinnamon Syrup

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake to combine and chill, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a dried citrus wheel.

My only lingering complaint with There Will Be Blood is the lack of female characters, especially because Anderson has an incredible skill for writing complex women into his films. However, in viewing this movie through the lens of the last eight years, it’s easy to understand why. Any woman in Daniel Plainview’s life would be a mere accessory. He’s not capable of thinking about women as actual human beings; he’d only turn some lucky lady into a show piece or pawn, allowing her no agency of her own. Frankly, I’d rather watch no woman than that woman. But to sum it up, if There Will Be Blood was low on your Paul Thomas Anderson list before today, I urge you to give it another chance. I’m certainly glad I did. Cheers!

Dramas

The Phantom Thread

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Phantom Thread, 2017

“A house that doesn’t change is a dead house.” What a quote to send us into the new year! Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Phantom Thread (Disc/Download) has a lot to say on the subject of death, but it has just as much to say about life. About finding the muse that makes you move forward. In Reynolds Woodcock’s case, it was a person and an unending yearning for perfection. In my case, it might just be this movie.

The Phantom Thread is one of those films that feels fresh and new each time you watch it. Like an evening gown from the House of Woodcock, there are so many layers that it’s impossible to see them all at once. Initially, the viewer is dazzled by the costumes and sweeping score by Jonny Greenwood, which sounds like something out of a Hitchcock film. Maybe you’re also a little turned on by Daniel Day-Lewis ordering breakfast (I know I was!). But then on the next viewing, you start to notice the subtleties in the performances. How one look or turn of phrase can convey so many emotions. Maybe you start to see it as a romance between two impossible people who could only ever love each other. But then on the next viewing, you start to see it as a ghost story. There’s a reverence for the dead, and a comfort from thinking that some of them are still sticking around. Eventually the dresses start to play second fiddle to the women in them, which perhaps was always the point of haute couture: to bring out the best in the person wearing it.

The change that hits the House of Woodcock comes in the form of Alma, a lovely but somewhat invisible waitress. Reynolds transforms her into his muse, and under his gaze we see her confidence grow. As his bitchy sister Cyril says with an assessing sniff, Alma smells of rosewater, sandalwood, lemons, and sherry. A couple of those ingredients found their way into my cocktail this week, and it all came together into a hue that matches Alma’s first Woodcock creation! While you’re watching The Phantom Thread, I recommend drinking this Rosewater ’75.

Rosewater ’75

1 1/2 oz Pink Gin

1/2 oz Lemon Juice

1/2 oz Blood Orange Cordial Syrup

3-4 drops Rosewater

Prosecco to top

Combine gin, lemon juice, blood orange syrup, and rosewater in a shaker with ice. Shake to chill, then strain into a coupe glass. Top with Prosecco.

This is a great movie to watch on New Year’s, not just for the lively 1950s NYE party, but because it inspires us to evolve. I honestly don’t know how to categorize it (gothic romance, period melodrama, dark comedy?), but I do know that I’m excited to watch it again. Same time, next year. Cheers!

Dramas

A Room With a View

LizLocke3 Comments
Image credit: A Room With a View, 1985

Spring has sprung, my orchid is blooming, and you know what that means—it’s time to watch a gorgeous movie about travel. I get the itch to watch beautiful people gallivant through Europe around the same time every year, and while this normally takes the form of yet another Talented Mr. Ripley viewing, this week I decided to abandon Mongibello to venture up the coast and inland to Firenze. A Room With a View (Disc/Download) is a Merchant Ivory masterpiece that will have you longing for sun-soaked days staring at the Duomo and passionate kisses among the flowers.

Like Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy Honeychurch, I was nineteen the summer I lived in Florence, Italy. I still remember laying on my lumpy twin bed in a tiny, rented flat, reading E.M. Forster’s classic novel, swatting mosquitos and waiting for my George to appear. My view was not of the Arno, but of terracotta rooftops and other peoples’ laundry. Still, at the time it felt romantic.  The thing I loved about the book then, and still love about the movie now, is how it portrays the emotions of frustration, desire, and indecision. Lucy wants to rebel against the life prescribed for her, but she doesn’t have the faintest idea how to do that, or what she wants as an alternative. Then somebody comes along to shake things up, providing the catalyst for the fire inside her. I love angsty stories about women in their late-teens/early-twenties because it’s such a fraught but important time. This is when the big decisions get made, when the forks in the road appear. I love the direction this story eventually takes because although Lucy does choose one of her suitors, she chooses herself first. Isn’t that how every great love story should begin?

If you’re looking for a cinema vacation, this film provides a perfect one. From crowded Florentine squares, to the rolling hills of Fiesole, to the bucolic villages of England, this whole movie is a sun-dappled work of art. However, my favorite scenes are the ones set in Florence, which is why I’m pouring a refreshing spritz cocktail, perfect for sipping on a balcony of the Pensione Bertolini. While watching A Room With a View, I recommend drinking this Elderflower Spritz.

Elderflower Spritz

½ oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

Fresh Mint

4 oz Prosecco

2 oz Club Soda

Muddle mint with St. Germain in the bottom of a glass. Let it sit for a few minutes, then add ice. Top with Prosecco and club soda, stirring gently to combine.

Speaking of elder, Maggie Smith does a terrific job in this as Lucy’s spinster-cousin and chaperone Charlotte, and I adore Judi Dench as the saucy romance novelist they meet in Italy. A Room With a View is a movie world to get lost in, and that feels pretty good right now. Summer, and all its adventures, will be here before we know it. Cheers!