Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood” is arguably the best film of 2007. A pitiless adaptation of an Upton Sinclair socialist novel, its account of the birth and growth of twentieth century capitalism and mass religion, one’s corruption informing the other, has a rare sweep and power to it. Through the particular story of a misanthropic oil prospector and an opportunist would be prophet Anderson gets to the heart of American greed and avarice. It’s at once an intimate character study, a meticulous recreation of thirty years of history (roughly from the turn of the century until the Wall St crash), and an epic whose ambition and achievement brings to mind the best Hollywood films of the past.

Richard Swainson