he holidays are over, and with the Golden Globe nominations announced and the Oscars on the way, we enter that special time of year where theaters are packed with trophy pictures vying for those little gold statues. While this normally means a collection of weepy melodramas that may or may not star Robin Williams, there are also a few genuinely great movies that appear on screen as well. No film this year is more deserving of praise than Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood .

The incomparable Daniel Day Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview, a self-described “oil man” searching turn-of-the-century Texas for underground rivers of the black, slippery stuff. With his adopted son by his side, Plainview wanders from town to town, promising the residents riches beyond their wildest dreams, while keeping most of the cash for himself. He’s a businessman with a smile and charm that thinly mask a soul governed purely by greed and ambition. Through this central character the film becomes a powerful critique of American capitalism in the vein ofCitizen Kane . But while that film merely revealed a man who lost his ideals in pursuit of wealth, here Plainview ends the film a shell of a man. He satisfies his professional dreams, but lives a solitary existence, bitter and competitive with everyone he knows.

<--quote#right-->The film has an important theme and has been released at an appropriate time in America, yet projects of this scale and ambition can easily falter without the guiding hand of a talented director. Fortunately There Will Be Blood is the unmistakable work of Paul Thomas Anderson. Ever since his sophomore effort Boogie Nights burst on to screens in 1997, Anderson has been one of the most exciting voices in American cinema. In the decade between that film and his latest release, the writer/director has only completed two projects: the sprawling multi-character tapestry Magnolia (arguably his best work) and the quirky Adam Sandler art-comedy Punch Drunk Love. While it is certainly disappointing that Anderson has not been more productive, the reason for these long gaps between films seems to be a result of the director’s desire to make a completely different movie each time out. It’s hard to think of two films more different than the giddy porn epic Boogie Nights and the chilling period drama There Will Be Blood, but not as difficult as it is to think of two better movies made during the intervening decade.

While Anderson’s impeccable direction is responsible for the success of There Will Be Blood, the star of the show is not the director, but Daniel Day Lewis. The great British actor is on screen for almost every frame and dominates the film with his performance. This is partly to do with the character, who is the type of man that immediately takes control of a room, but is primarily the result of Lewis’ skill as a performer. His Plainview is a monster who slowly loses the ability to conceal this fact. When the character sleeps he even growls like a bear, yet Lewis makes this trait seem utterly believable and natural. It is the best performance of his career and quite possibly one of the finest ever caught on film. Other actors such as Little Miss Sunshine’s Paul Dano do strong work in supporting roles, but it is impossible to ever take your eyes off of Lewis.