Up To SCALE: There Will Be Blood

I saw There Will Be Blood this weekend and I really… appreciated it. I know most movie reviews either gush or slander, I really can’t do either when it comes to Blood. I can’t say I really enjoyed it, I don’t think it is necessarily an enjoyable film, but that doesn’t stop it from being a remarkable movie.
If you haven’t heard this is the movie on everyone’s top ten lists, and it should be. Paul Thomas Anderson, who directed Boggie Nights and Magnolia, does a beautiful job on the script as well as creating an atmospheric mood that literally does not let you relax for two and a half hours. The film is based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, but from what I have heard it is a pretty loose interpretation so it is sort of inconsequential.
The movie is indisputably held up by Daniel Day Lewis as Daniel Plainview, a ruthless and plagued oil man in the early 20th century. He is captivating in the part and keeps the audience connected with the story for the entirety of the movie. The only caveat about Lewis in this role is that it sort reminded me of Bill the butcher from Gangs of New York. They are sort of similar characters in their lack of sanity, but at points Lewis can take an accent and character and shift it slightly towards cartoonish.
I also have to talk about Paul Dano as Eli Sunday. We first saw Dano in the so-overrated- I–cant-watch-it-anymore Little Miss Sunshine where he didn’t speak and he does a semi- 180 in Blood where he is so intense you feel like at any moment he is going to kill someone with his bare hands. I appreciate how he kept his role as an evangelical lunatic well below campy caricature.
The soundtrack is done by Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead and it is beautiful and awful and creepy as hell; which is to say fits the movie really well.
There is a nonlinear element to the story in There Will Be Blood which is interesting to me since it is an element I have seen in two other highly acclaimed movies in recent history Atonement and No Country For Old Men. This style of story telling has always been present in indie movies and so it is interesting that is bleeding over into the mainstream in such a prominent way.
Bottom lining it, even if you see There Will Be Blood and hate it as an experience; I hope you will realize what a cool and innovative mainstream movie it is, and why Daniel Day Lewis is so picky about the roles he takes.

Pump Up the JAMS

Sometimes when I discover new trends that are coming into existence I really wonder if people in the fashion business are getting bored. There is only so far you can really go, especially with menswear, that it makes it understandable when a trend like pajamas comes along. The interesting thing is, although this trend sounds ridiculous, I actually really like it.
The PJ look popped up first in Prada’s spring summer 2008 show (top) in a really literal sense with matching patterned shirts and pants. Now as a whole this looks exactly like pajamas, but what Prada was really trying to get across was more a sense of fantasy or going into a dream world; and of course you dream in pajamas.
The trend next showed up in the Lavin show in Paris (middle), and there it was much more subdued and more about Parisian laid back cool and thinking about sort of a light way to dress. Once PJs hit America at Duckie Brown (bottom) the trend finalized itself into its most wearable style. Ultimately the PJ trend is about a really relaxed way to dress, loose open shirt and loose pants. It is about summer heat and effortless clothes; and also about focusing a pattern or bright color into pants instead of a shirt.
I’m actually surprised this movement hasn’t caught on sooner with the amount of American men who idolize Hugh Hefner. And really, who doesn’t want to capture the sophisticated unpretentious style of a guy who walks around all day in a bathrobe, but makes it look desirable.
So I support this trend. I think it looks mad cool and comfortable and I will definitely be looking for some PJs to rock once the temperature gets above cold and rainy. I just hope it doesn’t increase my chances of falling asleep in class.