What’s Aged the Best?
The theme, emerging humor, visible oil-building process, score, ambiguity, PTA’s ascendancy, practical landscapes, script, trailer, young H.W., and “I’m finished”
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:34Read transcript
- The first minutes methodically turn a hole into an oil enterprise and make a complex process legible. — Bill Simmons
- Oil superseding religion reads as the twentieth century replacing nineteenth-century structures of power. — Bill Simmons
- The movie’s shots range from vast fire landscapes to intimate church movement and precise match cuts.
- The bowling ball visibly striking Dano’s foot enhances the climactic physical risk. — Bill Simmons
- No opening credits, Daniel leaving H.W. on the train, Dylan Freasier’s one-film performance, and the final line are individually celebrated.
- Ambiguity about Eli’s faith, Daniel’s love, and the curse of the unblessed site changes with each viewing. — Chris Ryan
- PTA’s scale and command pushed contemporaries toward their own mature masterworks.