I should not have expected a PTA movie to be an easy thing to digest. It did not make it easy to vote for the Filmspots.
My first thoughts are that this falls into the The Master category of PTA movies, which is unfortunate, because it is the category of movies I have trouble connecting with and grasping. I had an almost immediate and strong connection with all his other movies bar Hard 8 (and perhaps Inherent Vice, which I had to rewatch).
Bloody gorgeous though.
Well done PTA, you've really outdone yourself here. I thought you made bad films with There Will Be Blood and The Master, but wow is this obnoxiously bad. I mean, obviously what I thought the world needed most was the story of a tormented genius for whom all those around him are subjegated to his whims at their own cost because that's just the price of genius. Into that void steps Alma. I'm not sure when the charming part of the film was that gets her on the hook, but on the hook she falls.
Of course, if it seemed problematic on gender grounds when she was subject to his emotional abuse, her enhanced measures to bring him under her whims (arguably at cost of his genius) might be even worse. I mean, I guess there's some mommy issues/kink aspect that gives the whole tale a happy (?) ending but still, this was a real drag for me.
Hmm, my first sentiment was that Alma was an annoying passive aggressive immature woman who was in the wrong every time they had an argument. That was until things progressed into another direction.
I would recommend the Next Picture Show's episode on the movie, Bondo. It might reframe it in a more positive view for you (I still have to listen to the Filmspotting episode).
Plus, I really didn't come here to pick fights
Considering your first sentence here was a dismissal of Bondo's post, I would suggest you are not very good at it.
I keep hoping people start a fight here so I have reason to delete this whole conversation. And then people will ask where the thread went, and I'll be like, "What'd you expect? It was a phantom thread."
pixote