There Will Be Whining

I just got back from There Will Be Blood and it's still sinking in. See, P.T. Anderson movies aren't the sort that you can (or at least should) have a fully developed opinion of the second you walk out of the theater. I'm totally suspicious of "masterpiece!" reviews from any critics about any film that they've written within a day of the screening. And from my limited experience with other film critics I can tell you that they usually are. Which means that all reviews are suspect. I wish that I were joking. My apologies if that offends anyone.

Instant overstatements we can blame on the "first!" thing with the self-employed and the deadline thing with the corporate worker bees but it amounts to the same thing: rushed opinion-making. My point is this: There Will Be Blood isn't Enchanted... or, even um Rescue Dawn (which, unless I missed something, is a pretty bare bones and straightforward war drama). Ambitious movies are meant to be grappled with, not flushed out of your system before any nutrients have entered the bloodstream. I still find my opinion of Magnolia shifting slightly on occasion and that came out eight Decembers ago.

This is why I always bitch about awards entities throwing prizes around the second they're done with their last screening. That said, I'm going to have to be a hypocrite and start giving out awards this weekend on account of ... it's almost 2008. Arrrrgh. The year got away from me. The dreaded December deluge defeated me ...again.