My personal favourites of his are probably Magnolia, There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights.
His last two I sadly did not get into that much. While The Master and Inherent Vice were well made, I could get invested much into the story. So in the end, they were both nothing more than passable.
But with this latest feature supposedly being Daniel Day-Lewis' final film, there is some added incentive to expected something pretty big.
A lot has been said about Day-Lewis and the 3-time Oscar winner will forever be seen as one of the all-time greats. What makes Day-Lewis so good for me, is that it is always a different performance. There are plenty of actors that you can tell they are just doing their normal shtick that you expect to see. But not with Day-Lewis. His method style of acting makes you always see the character and never the actor, and in such amazing detail.
The story is all about fashion, and while it may feel like a true story, it is only loosely based on an English fashion designer from the 1930's-50's.
The first half really sucks you in and had a dream-like quality, and I feel that is thanks to the cinematography and Johnny Greenwood's score, which added to the film's sophisticated look.
It's subtle but powerful style of story-telling was really working for me as we entered the second half. I was liking the way the story built up by planting in certain scenes that you can tell will come to fruition later on. I also noticed that they somehow managed to be a healthy amount of comedic moments, which worked well due to the strong performances.
Towards the end, the story took quite a turn that might lose some people. Thankfully for me, it just added to the characters story arch really well and showed you the mentality of some highly successful personalities.
There are three very strong performances coming out of this. Obviously Day-Lewis is one of them. Like with all of his performances, you can tell that he has disappeared into the character, and you don't see him at all. That's what makes a great method actor and if this is to be he last outing, then it was a very memorable one.
Largely unknown Luxembourg actor Vicky Krieps did an amazing job as the female lead and was certainly matching Day-Lewis throughout. I had only seen her do very minor roles. But seeing her in this quite the revelation. She carried her own extremely well and I hope this ends being her breakthrough into more leading roles.
Lesley Manville was great and deserves the nominations she's been getting at the major awards for her no-nonsense character who had wonderful back-and-forth with Day-Lewis and delivered many memorable lines with such gusto.
What I liked about this film the most was it the central characters passion, precision and determination to their work really well and his development was pretty thorough. The narrow mentality to his work was fascinating to see be portrayed on screen and must have been fun for Anderson to write and direct.
A lot like the dresses you see get made, this film is made delicately and elegantly. It goes at a gentle pace and gives you plenty of time to get into this world and get invested with these fascinating characters. The performances are very memorable, and many aspects to this film are awards worthy. As expected, with a film being about a highly successful fashion designer, the costumes are wonderful to look at.
However, I can't see it being for many mainstream demographics, as the pacing is slow and on face value, not a lot happens. So I can completely understand if you feel the film to be boring. But if you are a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson or Daniel Day-Lewis, then this is a must-watch. While it may look subtle throughout, Paul Thomas Anderson's style makes it feel very powerful.
Rating: 8/10
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