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Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Phantom Thread'

Vicky Krieps as Alma and Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in <em>Phantom Thread.</em>
Laurie Sparham
/
Focus Features
Vicky Krieps as Alma and Daniel Day-Lewis as Reynolds Woodcock in Phantom Thread.

Phantom Thread is only the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film to examine a troubled, perhaps toxic genius and the people in his orbit. Daniel Day-Lewis, in what he says is his last film, plays Reynolds Woodcock, a 1950s dress designer in London who lives with his sister and a succession of women with whom he eventually grows tired. When Woodcock meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), who serves him breakfast and gets his order right, he takes her into his house as his lover and muse. Their relationship is, to say the least, a little intense. Day-Lewis is nominated for an Oscar, as is Lesley Manville, who plays Woodcock's sister. Anderson is nominated as director, along with the film's score and costume design. Phantom Thread is also on the nine-film list of Best Picture nominees.

We talk to Sarah Ventre of KJZZ in Phoenix about the film, its peculiar characters, and the particular charms of Anderson's filmmaking.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.