Paul Thomas Anderson turns out features slowly enough that it becomes a kneejerk response to double-check each release by his hacky namesake Paul W.S. (Resident Evil et al.) for fear of missing out on the next masterpiece on the level of 1999's Magnolia. But it's clearly worth the wait. There Will Be Blood makes a virtue of simplicity, confident enough in the strength of its central theme, consuming greed, to obviate the need for twists, turns or undue pyrotechnics. The setting of the early years of oil exploration and exploitation in small communities in California is absorbing enough, and Daniel Day-Lewis's portrayal of the increasingly solipsistic and maniacal oilman Daniel Plainview at the film's centre is simply astonishing, rivalling anything he's turned out in a sparse but mostly carefully chosen career.8/10
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