Oil and California and blood

I don't usually blog about movies, but "There will be blood" is an unusual case. I saw the movie at the Hollywood Arclight yesterday and really didn't know what to expect. I've been in a scaled-down news mode through the holidays and hadn't read any reviews or heard any of the buzz. I just knew Daniel Day-Lewis was in it and that's all the incentive I need. I would watch that guy watching paint dry. It was easily one of the oddest movie I've ever seen, but also possibly one of the best.

There are so many remarkable things about the movie that I've seen read in all the reviews. So I'm just going to mention one: the scenery. This is a wholly Southern California movie. Not just because it was filmed here and is about the turn-of-the-20th-century huckersterism (both oil and religion) that California was founded upon, but because of its achingly beautiful locations in the dry desert hills in and around Los Angeles County. That is reason enough to watch the movie. But happily there are many more.