“Never cursed”

‘Phantom Thread ’ might be the best film I think I have ever seen. Superb in every sense of the word. It's up there with ‘There Will Be Blood’. For the last couple of days after I watched the film, there was something about it that transcended me into a spell. It felt like a dream. An extraordinary incident was watching this a second time in one week, which is something I rarely do. Better on the second watch, if I must say. Gripped ever tighter in it’s sinister approach to love.

What could've been so boring with its subject matter of the fashion world, something I’m not personally interested in, but made it so fascinating. If you watched the trailer and think you know how things are gonna play out, you’re dead wrong.

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors working today and every movie he makes, just like Scorsese, I'm there. While the film making in the movie isn't anything striking, but didn't need to be. Not to say there wasn't any perfectly framed shots. The way he films cars driving was unique. There's a shot in the movie that's taken right out of ‘A Clockwork of Orange’. This guy can make movies like ‘Boogie Nights (1997)’ - A drug rush of funky disco in 1970’s California. Then makes ‘There Will Be Blood (2007)’ - A slow pace horror movie about oil drilling. And now ‘Phantom Thread (2017)’ - The most British thing ever, set in the 1950’s about fashion with shocking parallels to Hitchcock. Are you beginning to see a pattern here - The mighty 7’s.

Daniel-Day Lewis was absolutely fantastic in this movie - Yeah, what’s new. Of course this needs repeating, because he’s wonderful as the picky prick Reynolds Woodcock. What makes him so enthralling to watch is his special ability to embody his characters down to the smallest details. Sometimes during the film, you get close up of his worn out fingers after touching fabric and you immediately know it’s real. To prepare for the role, Day-Lewis actually made a balenciaga dress from scratch. This guy is a mad genius. Without any words spoken, his reaction when people make eat too loud or irritating little noises are hilarious. If it’s true about his retirement from acting, then he picked a great way to go out. He will be missed.

A standout performance from Vicky Krieps, who plays Alma, the woman Reynolds falls for. Krieps deserves more praise for her powerful performance, as she holds her own against Day-Lewis. Both having great chemistry that’s so sweet and yet messed up. I hope we see more of her in the future.

Lesley Manville plays Cyril, the cold silent type who sniffs out trouble in The House of Woodcock. She serves as a helping hand to Reynolds during difficult times, since both are siblings. Another surprise standout who also goes head to head with Day-Lewis and has some of the funniest lines in the movie. Her Oscar nomination was deserved.

Jonny Greenwood’s score is heaven to my ears. Listening to it feels like a warm blanket wrapped around me. One of the best things I've heard in quite a while.

And of course with it being fashion, the costumes and production designs are all terrific. Mark Bridges and Mark Tildesley crafted an astonishing piece of art that breathes life on to the screen.

Something that doesn't get enough praise is the sound design. Really detailed with every door slam, movement of plates and cutlery, needles going through thread, and crust from bread.

This plays out more like a Brother’s Grimm story than a romance. Characters constantly talk about curses, superstitions and the afterlife. Brides not touching wedding dresses as fear they will never get married. Sewing hidden messages within any fabric. Reynolds sewn a piece of his deceased mother hair into the canvas of his coat, keeping her close to his heart. The story about dressmaking and the artist was never the main focus, but something more ghostly. This refers to an irresistible motion of repeating sewing until the fingers get weary, even through their work are already done. Hence the title “Phantom Thread ”.

Overall Rating: A classic chic.

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is more in the vein of There Will Be Blood than Magnolia or Boogie Nights, meaning it's tighly focused on a very small, richly-developed cast rather than a glut of competing, interwoven storylines. Really, there are only three characters who matter: an intense, controlling dress-maker (Daniel Day-Lewis), his steady, all-business sister (Lesley Manville) and his young, headstrong new muse (Vicky Krieps). Their relationship is complicated, a careful balance of ticks, emotions and triggers that frequently threatens to collapse, but somehow manages to remain upright. They badger and provoke each other, testing for weakness between fleeting moments of warmth and compassion, and this flood of dense, competing emotion fuels their creative output.

Like many of Anderson's other films, Phantom Thread is quite slow, breezily coasting through snippets and snapshots of the trio's various liaisons - sibling, professional and romantic - and doesn't always settle on a firm message or meaning. We're merely documenting a small tangle of lives, complete with unsightly quirks and personality-driven hardships, as they learn to coexist and endure/accept one another's shortcomings. It's a film I enjoyed more upon reflection, thinking over the various layers of subtext and character motivation, than I did while I was watching it.

Phantom Thread in some way much like the topic of the film seems to be well-crafted, subtle and feels classy, if they can be applied to the overall feeling of a film. Certainly the cinematography, settings and custom work can be considered beautiful and should keep the viewer's interest as the film progresses. All of this of course is window-dressing (no pun intended) if the story and acting holds our interest less. I can easily see how many would be turned off by the slow-burning story of an uptight and picky man who is obsessed with making dresses but for others the whole premise of the story keeps you enthralled. What is going on? Who are these characters? Is that not the basis of any drama? Paul Thomas Anderson asks these questions, answers few and never drinks your milkshake, you see what you come up with when the film ends. This is no bad way to write a story or make a film.

Anderson likes his silences and characters who are not related in any way to Basil Exposition, and this is present in Phantom Thread. He also has a skill of making what are obviously not particularly nice characters somehow ‘okay’. Daniel Day Lewis, in his last film apparently, helps on this score showing why many consider him to be the greatest actor of his generation never showy but always on point with the character and how he behaves, subtle but superb and an exceedingly difficult skill to pull off.

The casting in the film helps its strong showing, Day Lewis is clearly not going drag anything down, but he is more than match by the Vicky Krieps who is truly enigmatic throughout to the point you are never really sure what is driving her throughout the running time. Both performances are shored up by the ever-reliable Lesley Manville showing her chameleon-like ability by playing an utterly different role than you have seen her in before to perfection. She gets the unsympathetic role as the cold, controlling, Cyril. Truth be told all three characters are equally enigmatic and will leave you scratching your head from time to time. Bizarre in this instance is good.

Possibly the most frustrating part of the film is just trying to figure out what you have seen and what the director/writer is trying to say. Is the title Phantom Thread referring to the love we all need that runs through us all? Is the love we need so strong it can override reason and the strongest will, is the need to control…. well, I could go on forever be told I do not know what I am talking about by Paul Thomas Anderson or any of the actors who took part or someone else who saw the film.

I am not sure what I really watched but this is the strength of the film not a weakness, I really liked the slow burn the strange characters, particularly of Reynolds, and what I got from the film.

This I believe is the secret of Anderson’s ambiguity in general, it is what I got from the film, I am sure my wife who watched it with me got something else and I am sure you get another meaning from the story.

This is a great thing, to be applauded.

Should you decide to visit your local cinema to take in a showing of Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest offbeat character study, you might want to make a bit more effort with your wardrobe than you're accustomed to for such outings. After spending 130 minutes totally immersed in the world of 1950s high fashion, I felt like an utter rube walking out of the cinema in my jeans and hoody combo.

Phantom Thread is as immersive as cinema gets. From its opening sequence, which takes us inside the House of Woodcock, a London fashion house run in quietly tyrannical fashion by renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day Lewis), Anderson's film dismisses any thoughts we might have of our own world of 2018. As we witness Reynolds go about his daily grooming routine it becomes clear we're watching a movie about a perfectionist, one made by a perfectionist, and starring a perfectionist in what is reputedly his final acting role.

Set in his ways like a tree set in concrete, Reynolds knows what he likes, and he likes what he knows. As such, his relationships with the many admiring members of the opposite sex (the film is set at a time when no man was more attractive than one who made things; and if those things happened to make women feel beautiful, like Reynolds' gowns, all the better) rarely get past the following morning's breakfast, where idle chit chat and toast buttering irritate him to a laughably over the top degree.

It's during breakfast away from home, in a small country café, that Reynolds meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), a pretty Eastern European waitress who is won over by his flirtatious charm and accepts his invitation for a dinner date. The relationship blooms quickly and Reynolds invites her into his home, teaching her the ways of his trade.

It doesn't take long for Alma's ways to begin annoying the fiercely independent and somewhat narcissistic Reynolds, and her presence begins to disrupt his work - she's become an anti-muse! Reynolds' assumption that she will follow the other women in his past and leave quietly once exposed to his spoilt brat boorishness couldn't be more wrong however. Alma is determined to make the relationship work, even if she has to take extreme measures.

Read the rest of Eric Hillis's review at http://www.themoviewaffler.com/2018/01/new-release-review-phantom-thread.html

I saw _Phantom Thread_ as part of a trio. We began watching this Oscar nominated movie at staggered intervals. I, from the beginning. The second, a half hour in. Then her partner, just past the half-way point. But all of us came to the same reaction when we'd been watching for what seemed like days only to realise there was still 30 minutes left: Lying on the cold, dirty floor, begging for it to end.

Prepare for the most heterosexual thing I have ever said: We had to watch YouTube clips of Arnold Schwarzenegger movie-kills and then the whole original _Robocop_ as a palette cleanser after being forced to endure _Phantom Thread_. That's not hyperbole either, it felt genuinely necessary so that's what we did. I fear that we live in the world where something this pretentious is considered one of the best movies of the year.

_Final rating:★ - Of no value. Avoid at all costs._