Phantom Thread [Blu-ray]

Ideally this is the kind of art film that merits whole articles more than review space on Amazon. But I'll spare you that. Instead I'll give you the mindset toolkit because it requires some 5-D glasses of sorts to enjoy in the way the filmmakers probably intended. It is a movie about layers and literal clothing layers. You can or could watch this movie for itself on one plain and take certain pleasure it's obvious esthetic which is masterful. But you may end up judging it shallow or vain or cliche. Which it absolutely is. At that level. I mean at this point culturally, we've all seen the movies about decadent fashion or fashion designers and this Oedipal character type played by Lewis is p-a-i-nfully tormentive to study even while sublimely acted to the point of being art happening within the art. And for itself, the film is an interesting kind of imaginary peek into elite fashion houses as they probably live and function and less their craftmaking, little about them seems enviable. But if you're paying attention to the layers that are quietly being screamed at you visually to notice, the real story is an allegory about men and women, courting, love, and all of the nuances about bonding. The whole dance. Chaos for order. Everything in the film is a symbol for something universal about these subjects. But the filmmakers hide them inside of a fairly straight forward story about an elite, genius fashion designer with mommy issues trying to make every woman fit his mother's metaphorical wedding dress. Which is how the story is brilliant in a basic way. You CAN watch it for its face value as a tale, and of course are meant to, but watching it for that level alone will frustrate you and will make you angry and upset. The film only grows more disturbing in fact at that level. I admit that at times I was ready to write it off and questioned Lewis' choice of this role. But then had the "A-HA" moment and saw what the storytellers were sewing. Once understanding the tempo, I began to enjoy it more and even see the characters in an adjusted and possibly deserving empathetic light. Before Lewis's character in particular was just awful and detestable and truth-be-told, not all of that gets sorted out to my liking but not sure the film needed to. Strangely, our love birds get sorted out in their own bizarre way and trust me, that's no spoiler alert. You'd have to be pretty good to really see the ending coming. I did and I didn't, but was pleased with the filmmakers special twist. Had they taken the story stitching an obvious direction, I believe it would've been declared contrived and one for the dustbins. But that's for an article or a film class which confessedly the film made me squirm to be in one where this movie could be dissected for all of its worthiness of critique and debate. I intend to watch it again and again to see the other secrets in the fabric. Oh, and you'll fall in love with actress Vickey Krieps. She's the Yin to Lewis' Yang both as an actor and a character in the film and particularly enjoyed that in such a couture design of a film, they slipped in some barely detectable improvisational moments. They were perfectly imperfect and I loved them!

How do you know you've seen a good movie. Well I think one clear indication is that you and your significant other spend the next two days discussing and dissecting it. This movie is beautifully acted and filmed. There is so much going on here that you may want to watch it several times. I'm not going to give away the plot so no discussion of that. Daniel Day Lewis gives an amazing performance - tightly wound and somewhere just on the border between madness and genius. The plot has numerous twists. The supporting actors are amazing. Note that this is definitely not a feel good movie, but it will leave you with lots to think about and discuss. Nothing gross, no explosions, just a deep thoughtful movie that captures the mood of the late 50's/early 60's and haute couture at the time.

I was somewhat skeptical going in to this movie and truly befuddled by PTA's last few efforts (especially the unguided and meandering morass that was "Inherent Vice"). But this was a focused and well crafted piece of film making that will rank high on the list of Anderson's and Day-Lewis's best.It is definitely not a conventional story of love (if there is such a thing). The depth of the connection between Alma and Reynolds ( Krieps and Day-Lewis respectively) lies in the stitching together of two souls whose fabric and DNA belong together, while seemingly cut from different cloth, they must be cut and sown and fashioned as one complete piece. And just when it seems the masterpiece is finished, Reynolds pulls at the "phantom thread" and it all unravels before our very eyes; and then the rent garment, like hearts torn, must be delicately woven together again.

Having been a major fan of “There Will Be Blood”, I had really high expectations for the next collaboration of Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson. This film is really unique (as with all PTA films) in that it explores an era and subculture not explored in film very often, in this case being the 1950’s London Fashion scene. Let me just say that from a production and acting standpoint, everyone is firing on all cylinders. This is an intense, romantic film with superb cinematography, score, costume/set design, direction, acting, etc. The only thing that may turn off viewers IMO is the final act, which I feel will make or break peoples opinions on the overall film, but I dug it. Though this film doesn’t quite reach the epic heights of There Will Be Blood, I still appreciate that PTA is making unique, original films that are edgy and thought provoking.

Ordered after it was ripped from Netflix streaming, favorite movie ever. “Kiss me, my girl, before I’m sick.” 🤌🏽

Everyone in this film does a subtle, understated performance. That's the only reason to watch it. In terms of plot or character it's a gigantic snooze-fest. I've seen every PTA film and this is his only real dud. It's borderline pretentious and doesn't offer the viewer much besides endlessly repetitive slow moving and extremely similar scenes. Almost NOTHING happens in this film and you learn almost nothing about the characters so if that's what you're into you will love this. Also a good film to study acting styles as PTA gives his actors so much room and space to live onscreen. Other than that there's no reason to sit through this.

It's a wonderful movie with stellar performances all around. Recommend.