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Day-Lewis and PTA both have strong apex cases; oil, modern outdoor epics, oil-covered faces, private bowling alleys, well explosions, and feeding liquor to a baby receive playful subcases.

This is Day-Lewis’s plaque movie; for PTA the panel splits between There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights.

Third Revelation wins over Get Out Ghost, Bandy Tract, My Son and My Partner H.W., Milkshake, Plainview, and Peach Tree Dance.

The unexplained mine escape, orphan’s mother, Daniel’s late discovery of Henry, Eli’s agelessness, and Paul’s cheaply sold family fortune generate the nits.

The movie is untouchable, though an all-Black version is briefly enjoyed as a thought experiment.

Wayne Jenkins is the comic default, while Philip Baker Hall and Buscemi fit naturally and Bernthal could replace Ciarán Hinds.

Daniel Day-Lewis gets the single Oscar.

Questions ask whether Day-Lewis is cinema’s greatest facial-hair actor and why Daniel hates Standard Oil so intensely.

The butler discovers another bowling-alley corpse and may treat it as routine; the discussion then asks whether Paul profited ethically by destroying his family.

The bloody bowling pin leads Daniel’s flask, hat, Henry’s diary, long swimming trunks, and Eli’s final cross.

Oil defeats religion and unchecked competition can poison the self and the world.