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January 2, 2010
Best Of, pt. 2
I somehow neglected to realize that 2010 was a turning point of any sort at all until just a few weeks ago, when I remembered an upcoming anniversary that I'll definitely be paying more attention to in the near future. Within this suddenly-defined envelope I rediscovered a catalog of encapsulated remembrances, all of which accumulated more import when applied to a timeframe. Many of these events occurred in darkened theaters, or their immediate proxies; indeed, the bulk of my cinematic matriculation occurred over the past decade, hand-in-hand with my own awkward shuffle into some version of maturity, and so I've commensurately been looking up and down at all those best-of-the-decade lists, remembering what came out when and where and, aside from wondering whether or not they're being compiled twelve months early (where does a decade begin and end, exactly?), considering which of those titles I'd pick for my own momentous run-down of millennial cinema.
I could choose ten films, or twenty-five, or fifty - there's safety in higher numbers, less of a need to choose between two favorites - or I could go in the opposite direction and narrow things down to a list of three films and one filmmaker. This accounting beginning almost exactly ten years ago, when I went to see Magnolia. It was technically a 1999 film, but it didn't reach Texas screens until early 2000. I loved it more than anything. I still love it, but I watched it again two or so years ago, and had I seen it for the first time at the age I was then (or am now), I don't know if it would have worked so well for me. Conversely, if I hadn't seen it then, I don't know if I'd be the person I am now.
That person was working as a projectionist in the summer of 2002, when a shipment of trailers from Technicolor arrived at the theater, containing the first preview for Punch Drunk Love. I spooled it onto a print, threaded it up and snuck into the theater to watch it, and I recall that as the first frames hit the screen, I thought to myself "There really is a new Paul Thomas Anderson/i> movie coming out" with the same out-of-body-reverence that generally accompanies the arrival of any anticipated landmark in one's life.
A similar thought occurred in late December five years later, when the lights dimmed on that first midnight screening of There Will Be Blood (which I think could handily take the title of best film of the decade were I to focus solely on individual films). Its own considerable qualities aside, what I love about it - what I love about PT Anderson in general - is that it's not just a great fucking movie, but that it is such a marked progression from the one that came before it, which was itself a huge step forward from its own predecessor. His next project, The Master, has just been announced, and with the press release came a shot of the strangest sense of anticipation. One part anticipation, three parts trust - what a true joy it is to watch such a gifted filmmaker grow over the span of his oeuvre! And on a more personal level, as a filmmaker, what a joy it is to try and keep pace.
Posted by David Lowery at January 2, 2010 7:09 PM