Another one: Cineaste (Fall 2014): Blossoms & Blood, Jason Sperb’s very strong new book, doesn’t so much argue the case for PTA’s greatness as show, slowly and methodically, how he moved through and within the ranks of American filmmaking—a case study of how even the most self-determined directors are always borne aloft by cultural currents. . . . Addressing Anderson’s generally polarizing films in measured, reflective tones rather than the sort of over-heated rhetoric that appeals to both his fans and detractors—and the success of There Will Be Blood forced a good number of critics to double down on their misgivings alongside a wave of grateful converts—allows Sperb to retain a certain authority even as he admits that his findings are largely provisional . . . If one of Sperb’s clear models for Blossoms & Blood is Robert Kolker’s A Cinema of Loneliness—merely the finest book on commercial American filmmakers published in the last thirty years—then hopefully, like Kolker, he’ll get a chance to revise his findings in a follow-up edition.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:13:16 +0000
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