Tarantino has called Dano a ‘weak, weak uninteresting guy’, ‘the giant flaw’ in There Will Be Blood – and the main reason it is not his favourite film of the 21st century
H
ow does the saying go? Opinions are like arseholes? Arseholes like opinions? Anyway: Quentin Tarantino went on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast this week to announce his 20 favourite films of the 21st century – a list that starts with Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down at No 1 and finishes on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story at 20, by way of a few surprises (Toy Story 3 in second spot, Midnight in Paris at 10).
But the wildest of wild takes was revealed in his No 5 pick, There Will Be Blood, when Tarantino declared Paul Dano was the film’s “giant flaw”.
“There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being No 1 or 2 if it didn’t have a big, giant flaw in it … and the flaw is Paul Dano,” Tarantino said, comparing Dano’s performance as twins Paul and Eli Sunday with that of Daniel Day-Lewis as oilman Daniel Plainview. “Obviously, it’s supposed to be a two-hander, but it’s also drastically obvious that it’s not a two-hander. [Dano] is weak sauce, man. He’s a weak sister.”
