Review of Phantom Thread (2017) by Seth W — 15 Jan 2018

Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite filmmaker, and I believe the best living auteur. I love not knowing where his films will take me. If you've seen the trailer for Phantom Thread, you've seen scenes from the first 15 minutes or so only. The movie progresses as you imagine it would for another hour, sumptuously, with gorgeous photography, set, costumes, and beautiful music. Reynolds Woodcock has an extremely orderly life, and invites Alma to share it with him, as a sort of muse. But we know nothing conventional will come of it, because Reynolds is so well fleshed out, by the script and Daniel Day-Lewis, so we expect confrontation as the arrangements become untenable. That's what we get, but then the pair devolve from contentious to something probably best described in the DSM-5. She learns about a particular vulnerability of his, and exploits it like a boss.

My eyes and ears were so delighted with this film, that I wish I could have smelled it as well. Or touched the fabric. I almost feel like I did.