THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Continuing the Sneaky Cheetah's unsuccessful quest to see every Oscar nominated film before tonight!

Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Daniel Day Lewis), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction and Sound Editing.

Best Picture? I don't know. Perhaps. Most memorable? Yes. There Will Be Blood is one of those films that will stick in your head for weeks after you see it. The film follows the career of Oil man Daniel Plainview as he builds an oil empire in the early 1900's. Plainview is a bastard. Obsessed with his company, he stives more to crush his competition then for his own success. He hates people except maybe his adopted son, though he seems to use him more as a prop to sell his company's services. Day-Lewis is beyond an actor in this film. He becomes Plainview, body and soul. His speech and mannerisms are so distinctive, it's hard not to like him, even as he spirals downward into paranoid madness as he becomes more successful. The thorn in his side is the local preacher/prophet Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). He matches Day-Lewis' intensity in every scene, and should have scored a Supporting Actor nomination. The film is long, but doesn't seem so, because the process of early oil drilling is damn interesting, as much as the conflict between Plainview and everyone else. It's got a great chance to sweep up a bunch of Oscars tonight, though probably not editing, sound editing or adapted screenplay. This film currently sits in the top 25 films of ALL TIME on IMDB's Top 250 list. When you see that, you know you're in for something special.

The Sneaky Cheetah's Grade: A

Paul Thomas Anderson is nominated for producing, directing, and adapting the screenplay. He was previously nominated for writing the screenplays for Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999)

This is the first nominations for producers JoAnne Sellar and Daniel Lupi.

Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor for My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989). He was also nominated for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Gangs of New York (2002)

Cinematography Robert Elswit was previously nominated for Good Night, and Good Luck (2005).

This is Editor Dylan Tichenor, Sound Editor's Matthew Wood and Christopher Scarabosio, Art Director Jack Fisk and Set Decorator Jim Erickson's first nomination.