Quentin Tarantino criticizes lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece

Quentin Tarantino isn’t hiding behind his opinion of Paul Dano’s performance There will be blood.

Speaking of Bret Easton Ellis podcast, the director revealed his picks for the best movies of the 21st century — and while he ranked Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 classic at number five, he said one issue kept it from going any higher.

“It would have had a better chance of being number one or number two if it didn’t have one big huge flaw in it,” Tarantino said.

“And the flaw is Paul Dano. Obviously, it’s supposed to be two hands, and it’s also so drastically obvious that it’s not two hands. … It’s weak sauce, man. It’s a weak sister.”

Tarantino emphasized that Daniel Day-Lewis’ Oscar-winning performance ultimately carried the film. “Daniel Day-Lewis shows he doesn’t have to [a strong foil in the movie]. It doesn’t need anything. The movie would have had more – it would have had more rigor to the beef. Again, it’s supposed to be two-handed, and it’s not.”

When Ellis suggested that Day-Lewis’ towering presence might have overshadowed Dano, Tarantino sharply pushed back: “So you’re putting him with the weakest male actor at SAG? The world’s grossest d**k?”

He clarified that he was not calling Dano’s work destructive. “I’m not saying it gives a terrible performance. I’m saying it gives a non-entity [performance]. I don’t care about him. I don’t care about Owen Wilson, I don’t care about Matthew Lillard.”

There will be blood won two Academy Awards – Best Actor for Day-Lewis and Best Picture – and earned eight nominations in total.

In his original 2007 review, THR praised the film as “a definite awards contender”, noting, “Daniel Day-Lewis dazzles in Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic about a dead man from the soul of oil”.