Rian Johnson is currently basking in the glow of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” but he’s taking a break from being in a galaxy far, far away to celebrate the entirely different world of “Phantom Thread.” The new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, and Daniel Day-Lewis’ last as an actor, is gearing up to arrive Christmas Day in limited release. And Johnson makes a persuasive argument for why you might want to hold off on that second viewing of ‘The Last Jedi’ to step into Anderson’s finely threaded film.
Writing for Variety, Johnson praises Anderson’s films, and the way they burrow into his brain, staying there long after he’s left the cinema. “Phantom Thread” does it again, and the director doesn’t hold back in his appreciation:
….“Phantom Thread” is among Paul’s damnedest and rarest. It has a lush and delicately engaged vigor that evokes David Lean’s romances, though it is always beguilingly idiosyncratic and entirely its own beast. The performances are densely layered wonders and the visual design is exquisite, but the real magic of it is how the thing as a whole transcends technique.
Maybe that’s why I come back to the musical analogy — I can string together fancy sounding adjectives until the cows come home, but the truth is I don’t know how great music does what it does, and I don’t know how Paul’s movies do that voodoo that they do. I just know that we’re always lucky to get a new one, and that this one in particular is something very, very special.
Indeed, cinephiles can’t ask for a better gift than unwrapping a new movie by Paul Thomas Anderson at Christmas.
“Phantom Thread” rolls out on December 25th.
