A Sundance premiere, it's playing in about two-dozen theaters in California. Looks great, but still limited release.

There Will Be Blood has received positive attention for a number of reasons - Daniel Day Lewis' performance, the outstanding score, and Paul Thomas Anderson's outstanding vision.  This movie deserves all the praise it's been receiving and more. He offers up a mesmerizing look at a turn of the century oil man that won't soon be forgotten.                          

PT Anderson is an amazing film maker. Every movie that he's made has been well written, well acted, and exceedingly detail oriented.  He's definitely one of the most talented writer/directors working in Hollywood today. The other great thing about PT Anderson is his range - he's gone from a gritty casino-set drama in Hard Eight (aka Sydney) to the world of seventies porn in Boogie Nights and to a modern day ensemble piece that's too complicated for summation in Magnolia. He now expands his impressive repertoire with There Will Be Blood - an achingly deliberate, beautiful film.

The movie follows the life of Daniel Plainview who starts the movie as a humble prospector and ends up  a ruthless but wealthy oil tycoon. It is of course, more complicated, but that's really the concept of the story which is based on the novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair. The film spans over 20 years of Plainview's life and follows him through the good - striking oil, growing wealthy- and the bad - pretty much everything else in the movie.

Anderson has a reputation as an actor's director - someone whom actors want to work with and who can elicit the most amazing performances from his cast. This movie is no different. The acting is superb all around. Any review of this movie without speaking of Daniel Day Lewis.  He gives an amazing performance as Daniel Plainview - so staggeringly amazing that one forgets that he's even acting.  He has the ability to inhabit his characters which has been obvious throughout his career (see My Left Foot, Last of the Mohicans, and Gangs of New York if you doubt his abilities) but this performance takes the cake. If he doesn't win the Oscar this year, then there is just no integrity to the selection process anymore.

 The rest of the cast is really a means of telling his story and figure into the plot rather superficially.  The only other characters who impact the movie significantly are Plainview's son H.W. (who is struck deaf at the age of 10 in a mining explosion) and an over the top, young preacher named Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano).  The latter figures heavily into several key plot points but it's how he influences Plainview that is the topic of the film.

The movie has a really unique tone, vascillating  between moments of extreme tension and deliberate slowness.  This is due, in large part, to the score - an eerie collection of ethereal tones composed by Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood.  Never before has a score so influenced my emotional involvement in a film.  PT Andersons' use of visuals also contributes to the tone and pacing.  He opts for long takes which are frequently wide angle, allowing for a full appraisal of the action.  This approach is extremely successful in conveying the despair and isolation essential to the story.

Novels make great novels. They rarely make great movies. Case-in-point: There Will Be Blood. Director / Writer PT Anderson failed to translate Upton Sinclair's brilliant, character-driven novel into anything remotely close to an entertaining film.

It's a bad sign when the only interesting parts of a film are its last five minutes. Atonement is a dull movie whose thin plot could've been wrapped up in about 30 minutes, and I think I'm being a bit generous.

What's most frustrating is that the story had potential. Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan, daughter of Paul Ronin), as a 13-year-old aspiring writer, dramatically up heaves the lives of several people when she wrongly reports that she saw one of the house servants, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland, Chronicles of Narnia), rape a young cousin living in the family's enormous country estate. Robbie is hauled off to prison and Briony's sister Cecilia (Keira Knightley, Pirates of the Caribbean) is left longing for the man she's just realized she loves. Briony (later played by Romola Garai, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) spends the rest of her life seeking atonement that she more or less never gets until near present day, when as her final act as a writer, she writes the story her own way (then played by Vanessa Redgrave, Nip/Tuck, Girl Interrupted).

Though the filmmakers had a universal theme and stunning actors to work with, they weren't able to take that story anywhere interesting. Atonement is simply, entirely, totally--boring. The most compelling moments come when Redgrave's character reveals the true story and we find that what we were watching wasn't what really happened. Unfortunately, that's also the end of the film.

From a technical standpoint, the film has its moments, but those are even somewhat uneven. Its beautiful cinematography and lighting are often overshadowed by a garish and widely inappropriate musical score from Dario Marianelli. He juxtaposes loud, large classical numbers against what should be tender, quiet scenes. There is a skill to that kind of contrast and he doesn't have it.

If there is a upshot, it's the acting. Saoirse Ronan's Oscar nomination for best supporting actress is well-deserved (whether she should win is another story), though Romola Garai and Keira Knightley would have been better choices. They both deliver outstanding performances, particularly Garai. Still, the acting's not enough to save this particularly dull and pretentious film. But that's not to say it won't sweep the Oscar's next month (it's sitting on a boatload of nominations, some legitimate, some not - like Marianelli's). After all, the Academy loves the dull and pretentious. Too bad they can't add entertaining to that list.

So, it must be said...this is a really good movie.  It's a well-crafted film that's beautiful to look at, beautifully acted, and a poignant story. That being said, it's definitely not for everyone. It's slow, overly romantic, and kinda esoteric. 

The movie follows a young man and woman fall in love, only to have their romance cut short by the (false) accusations of the womans' younger sister.  As a young girl, she witnesses events she can't comprehend and horrifically misinterprets them - with disastrous consequences.  The rest of the movie then follows the couple through the course of their lives as they've been affected by that event and the life of the younger sister who realizes the terrible mistake she's made and it's consequences.

The acting in this movie is superb.  Both Keira Knightly and James McAvoy give solid performances as the two leads.  Both of the characters are played with subtlety and at times it doesn't even seem like they're acting.  There is only one scene where this wasn't true and it comes towards the end of the movie when Knightly and McAvoy are confronted by her sister.  Knightly painfully overacts throughout the scene - it's like a parody of how she would have actually reacted - making it a bit laughable.  Other than that, her performance is great.  The standout in the movie is Saoirse Ronan as Briony Tallis the younger sister who sets the tragic events into motion.  For a child actor, she does an amazing job at conveying the complex emotions the role demands.

The way this movie was filmed is, a large part of what makes it so appealing.  It basically takes a scene and then shows it from another perspective in order to illustrate how events can be misconstrued and the consequences that these misinterpretations can have.  This trick adds much more interest to the story and creates a sense of empathy for both view points.  The other standout in this movie is the cinematography.  It is absolutely stunning.  One scene in particular involves James McAvoy's character who is away at war and arriving at a bombed out stronghold of the allied armed forces.  The scene is intricate in composition and is shot in one continuous, extremely long take.  It encompasses many extras and an amazing set that the actors and the camera deftly weave through.  It was an amazing scene both visually stunning and technically impressive.

This movie isn't gonna win over anyone who doesn't already enjoy this genre of film, but it's a really great movie nonetheless.    

It's not often that an independent movie comes along and becomes a really huge success.  Little Miss Sunshine is probably the last independent film to really capture audiences the way Juno appears to be.  And it really is no surprise.  It's cute and lovable and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish.

The movie follows a 16 year old, intellectually precocious, smart-aleck-y, emo girl who finds out at the beginning of the film that she's pregnant.  She soon confides in her best friend and after a short lived flirtation with the idea of abortion, they cook up a scheme to find a couple to adopt the unborn child.  This leads Juno to the doorstep of a couple desperate for a child.  Through the course of the movie there are ups and downs as you can imagine but in the end, everything works out.

This movie was fantastic.  It was a revelation.  There's very little that can be criticized about this movie.  The only real gripe is that everyone seems a bit too quick witted and intelligent - not very true to life obviously.  This really however doesn't detract from the movie and provides some great one-liners along the way.

The break-out star here is Ellen Page as Juno.  She's had roles in several great movies, notably Hard Candy and the X-Men franchise, but this movie shows that she's got what it takes to carry a film.  She is absolutely perfect at conveying the right mix of teen angst, pregnant mood swings, and immaturity that the role demanded.  Absolutely nothing bad to say here.  Michael Cera, bless his heart, is great but he plays the same role as everything he's ever done (don't get me wrong...I've loved the guy since Arrested Development,  and he does play that character well).  As far as the supporting cast goes, Jennifer Garner is amazing as the desperate (and I do mean DESPERATE) wife who wants to adopt Juno's unborn child.  She totally inhabits the character and becomes probably the most sympathetic person in the film.  The rest of the supporting cast is great too, especially Allison Janney who delivers some of the best one liners in the film ("Doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch other people scream" - that's totally gonna become my tag-line!).

Jason Reitman, the director, who's other mainstream film Thank You For Smoking shares some of Juno's charm, does a really solid job of bringing the cast together and creating a story that flows seamlessly and never drags.

Overall, Juno is a win.  The whole movie is just rock solid with little or no criticisms.  The other great thing about this film is it's wide appeal.  Teens will love it, but so will their folks.   Everyone should see this movie.  More than once.

There's been much talk about the historical accuracy of this movie and evidently the filmmakers took some liberties in regards to some of the details and even made up the odd character here or there. The bottom line is that this movie is based on real events and the movie does a really good job of telling a very compelling story...so what if they had to embellish some points for the sake of entertainment.  

The movie follows the exploits of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson.  He's a single, womanizing, hard-partying member of the U.S. House of Representatives who happens across the story of Afghani refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their home country into Pakistan.  Upon hearing of this "war" in which the people of Afghanistan are being out muscled and basically massacred, he begins funneling congressional funds to aid the Afghanistan fight against the Russians...eventually appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars which led to the defeat of the Communists.

First of all, the acting in this movie is truly exceptional.  It's not every day where you watch a movie and every major character is played so convincingly that you forget that these are actors playing roles.  That's exactly how this movie is.  Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Philip Seymour Hoffman are all superb in their respective roles.  They all do a great job embodying their characters.  Hoffman is especially convincing as Gust Avrokotos, the CIA officer who worked with Wilson to aid the Afghanis against the Russians.

This type of film has the tendency to become tedious and boring by the end, but Charlie Wilson's War does a really good job of injecting just the right amount of humor into each scene to keep the plot moving effortlessly along.  The movie offers an interesting perspective on the events surrounding the largest covert war ever funded by the United States government. Mike Nichols can really be credited with pulling together so many great performances and telling such a compelling story.  His direction is spot on in this film as it has been in previous films such as Angels in America and Closer.

This is a really great movie.  There are so many components that make it attractive to many different people.  It has big name stars, a track-proven director, drama, comedy, and a slightly flawed history lesson.  Overall, it's a movie that's well worth seeing.

Ok...wow! I have nothing bad at all to say about this movie. Now, I guess before I really get started I should preface this by saying that I LOVE the Coen brothers. I just don't know how those guys are able to turn out such consistently amazing movies. They've definitely made some of my favorite movies of all time and I can't think of a single one of their movies that I don't like.

That being said, this is truly the best movie of the year! Everything about it is just perfection. This is definitely my favorite Coen brothers film to date and that's saying somethin'. The movie just grabs you by the balls and doesn't relent until the closing credits. From the second this movie starts, you get totally pulled into this desolate, West Texas world. The movie just grabs you by the balls and doesn't relent until the closing credits. I was just totally amazed by how the Coen brothers managed to keep up the tension for the entire film. The setting of the film definitely lends to this tension. Most of the scenes are filmed in the arid landscape of the West Texas/Mexico border and aren't really cluttered with many extras. Your attention is totally focused on the action and the characters. 

Basically, the story centers on this sorta regular dude (played by Josh Brolin) who just happens to stumble upon a gruesome crime scene and finds like 2 million bucks. Instead of going to the cops though, he decides to keep the money which sets off a chain of events that he didn't really foresee. Throw in the creepy guy chasing him (Javier Bardem) and the small town sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) and you've pretty much got the jist.

The cast is amazing. Every actor was well cast and every role is well acted. The stand out is of course, Javier Bardem as the creepiest villain to ever (in my opinion) appear on screen. Also, where the hell has Tommy Lee Jones been?  He makes a bunch of shit movies over the past several years and then hits us with this? This movie really shows how good he can be given the right material.

The Coen brothers again demonstrate that they are two of the greatest talents working in the movie business these days - maybe ever.  They do double duty as the writers (they adapted the screenplay for the Cormac McCarthy novel) and directors.  They never cease to amaze me with their ability to make different genres of movies and nail em!  This movie harkens back to their early film Blood Simple in it's tone and (kinda but not really)noir style.  If you liked that movie or Fargo or Miller's Crossing, chances are, you'll love this movie as much as I did.

In short, please go see this movie...yesterday...and see it over and over again. It truly is the single best movie of the year and is nothing short of a masterpiece. You won't be dissapointed.  And if I might add, if I could give this movie more than five stars, believe me, I would!