When Quentin Tarantino talks movies, people listen. Whether he’s praising a critical punching bag like Joker 2, taking a swing at a universally beloved classic, or asking 'wtf is a movie now,' he does it with the gusto of a man who has spent his entire life mainlining cinema. So when he recently shared his personal top-ten films of the 21st century, cinephiles naturally perked up. And yes, There Will Be Blood made the list, but it wouldn’t be a movie pick from the Pulp Fiction filmmaker without him critiquing the heck out of one aspect of the film most people praise.
But in classic Tarantino fashion, placing a film in his top ten didn’t stop him from going full film-school-professor on one specific aspect. He praised Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece loudly when appearing on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast…then immediately dragged one performance so hard you could practically hear Daniel Plainview slamming a bowling pin. Before we get into the fallout, here are the Reservoir Dogs helmer’s comments as he said them:
Daniel Day-Lewis. The old-style craftsmanship quality to the film. It had an old Hollywood craftsmanship without trying to be like that. It was the only film he's ever done, and I brought it up to him, that doesn't have a set piece. The fire is the closest to a set piece. This was about dealing with the narrative, dealing with the story, and he did it fucking amazingly.
Then came the part that had my ears perk up and will undoubtedly have folks talking. He added:
There Will Be Blood would stand a good chance at being #1 or #2 if it didn't have a big, giant flaw in it. . . . and the flaw is Paul Dano. 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 is the weak sister. Austin Butler would have been wonderful in that role. He's just such a weak, weak, uninteresting guy. The weakest fucking actor in SAG.
All due respect, but… beg your freakin’ pardon? I’m going to go ahead and disagree with the legendary filmmaker, because on this one, I think he’s wildly off base. But hey, Tarantino is gonna Tarantino — only he could call one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation “weak sauce” while pitching an alternate-universe There Will Be Blood where Austin Butler shows up as Eli Sunday. Somewhere in the multiverse, that version absolutely exists, and I guarantee the accents are flawless.
As for me? I think Dano is perfectly cast. His performance is unnerving, slippery, and genuinely skin-crawling in a way that makes Eli Sunday feel like a different species. Dano has delivered some of the most memorable villain work of the last two decades — from There Will Be Blood to his chilling turn as the Riddler in The Batman to the devastating fragility he brought to Prisoners. Weak? Not even remotely.
And Tarantino’s take on Dano isn’t the only eyebrow-raiser here. In the same chat with Ellis, he gushes about Midnight in Paris but says he can’t stand Owen Wilson — yet another opinion I cannot cosign. But hey, I didn’t direct Inglourious Basterds, so what do I know?
There Will Be Blood, which you can watch streaming with a Paramount+ subscription, still made Tarantino’s top ten movies of the century, despite his Dano grievances. So, would he drink its milkshake? Absolutely. But he’d also tell you exactly how it could’ve been mixed better.
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