Paul Thomas Anderson is a truly maddening filmmaker to me.

He’s managed to build two of my favorite flicks in “Boogie Nights” and “Hard Eight,” but plus two other that just drive me crazy. I still have no notion what he was going for with “Magnolia,” even though I forced myself to watch it a second moment to see whether there was somehow something I missed (there wasn’t.) And “Punch Drunk Love,” despite the best efforts of Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, was only intermittenly charming at best.

But what all his movies have, whether you like them or not, is passion. He clearly throws himself into his projects completely, which means it can often take a short lifetime for him to construct a movie (it’s been five years since his last, “Punch Drunk Love.”) Now, however, he finally seems to have found a subject epic decent to fit his talents and an actor who similarly gives everything he has to each performance.

Due early in 2008, “There Will Be Blood” is based on the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil,” which I will be reading before that comes out. Set in the booming West coast oil fields at the turn of the 20th century, it will star Daniel Day Lewis as rugged prospector Daniel Plainview, who becomes an independent oilman after hitting it rich with the strike of a lifetime. I hope that plays wide decent for me to see it, or is playing in some kind of limited run when I hit NYC for my family’s annual trip at year’s end, considering that just looks like the perfect melding of subject, director/writer and actor. Here’s the poster and a glimpse of what’s to come with the trailer (I concede that that may be months old to some of you, but it’s new to me, so here goes):

More “Jackass”? Yes, please

Surely there have been greater crimes of omission than teasing us with Don DeVito getting his tooth pulled by a truck in the trailer for “Jackass Number Two” and soon after not including it anywhere in the movie or DVD, but that was one that really grated my cheese. Now, however, it seems that lovers of that and all other kinds of jackassery will soon get more.

According to the great /film blog, Johnny Knoxville and the boys are filming new scenes to add to the

40 minutes or so of leftover footage from “Number Two” to invent a “Jackass 2.5″ in instance for a straight-to-DVD Christmas release. And yes, they promise the infamous tooth pull will indeed be included.

Wiest joins the ‘Jezebel’

I can’t think of a midseason replacement show I’ve tuned in to since, well, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but “The Return of Jezebel James” is one I’ll definitely give more than one chance.

After all, it’s the new series from “Gilmore Girls” creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and hubby Daniel Palladino. that instance they’ve cooked up a half-hour sitcom for Fox about two estranged sisters (Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose), one of whom (I’m not certain which) just happens to be carrying the other’s baby. Now comes word that the always very likable Dianne Wiest will be joining the cast in a recurring role as their mother. Extremely girly, yes, but it will hopefully additionally be thoroughly entertaining.

A golden opportunity from the Film Guild

The Macon Film Guild has been bringing arthouse flicks to the big screen here in Macon for years now, but they’ve really hit a high point with their next two screenings.

It starts that weekend with “The Lives of Others,” which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. I was all set to rent that on DVD to see how it could have possibly beat out my favorite movie of 2006, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” when I got the guild postcard and decided to hold out.

The movie, as far as I can tell, is about a Stasi agent (the late Ulrich Muhe) who is charged with spying on the private lives of German citizens until he finds out some unseemly truths about the citizens he’s spying for and has second thoughts. I’m surely not doing it justice, so come out and see for yourself at the Douglass Theatre. Screenings will be at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Hopefully I’ll see you there at the first show.

Coming next month will be “The Wind that Shakes the Barley,” Ken Loach’s IRA movie starring Ciaran Hinds. It won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, and like all of Loach’s movies, will certainly be a very entertaining piece of agitprop. Mark your calendar for screenings on the second Sunday of October. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic