Lydia Tar and Danielle Plainview captivate us for the same reason.

Like Blanchett, Day-Lewis is a master of his craft who grabs immediate attention from movie audiences thanks to his incredible track record; until his retirement, he was incredibly picky about his choice of roles. Plainview’s character is perhaps his greatest, as Day-Lewis redefines our idea of ​​evil in Paul Thomas Andersonan epic study of American greed. Daniel Plainview is a character who is so obsessed with dominance, power and influence that he intimidates and attacks everyone around him to the point of going insane. Few scenes in movie history are as memorable as Plainview’s famous milkshake monologue.

Viewers are often drawn to cinematic anti-heroes; be it Travis BickleRobert DeNiro) V Taxi driverTyler Durden (ur.Brad Pitt) V Fight clubor Norman Bates (Christian Bale) V american psycho, there’s something mesmerizing about watching a malevolent character face the consequences of their actions. However, both Lydia and Daniel are not violent criminals who exist outside the law; they represent real institutional repressive forces that seem frighteningly real. Many viewers mistook Lydia Tar for the real composer due to the film’s recreation of her accomplishments; Similarly, Daniel feels torn from the historical record of the dawn of the oil surge. There is something even more frightening about these characters, because they reflect real-life evil.

Both Lydia Tar and Danielle Plainview control their surroundings

The defining motivation of Lydia and Daniel is control. Lydia refuses to publicly acknowledge any aspect of her personal life as she sees her accomplishments as being completely far removed from anything in her past. She is enthusiastic during the film’s now-iconic opening interview as she lays out her own legacy to the crowd. Only in intimate moments do we begin to understand Lydia’s desire not only to control her image, but also to control the education of her students. Her relentless pursuit of a student opposed to the study of cis-gender white male composers such as Bach prompts Lydia to subsequently shame and humiliate him in front of her class.

Similarly, Daniel only uses empathy when it gives him an advantage in his business dealings; first he adopts his son HW (Dillon Frazier) because he believes that positioning himself as a family man can help his stake in the oil fields. Daniel is ruthless in his extensions, pushing the security lines to satisfy his urges. He subsequently refuses to bow to his behavior when he starts drilling at an oil field in a small community in Little Boston, California. While local pastor Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) encourages him to get involved in their community, Daniel actively undermines any attempts to join those who he believes are below him.

Aggression and greed drive Lydia Tar and Daniel Plainview

Both characters see any potential competition as a threat to their sanctity and image, revealing the dirty tactics they are willing to use. Lydia believes she can keep her current orchestral arrangements, which allow her to favor students in exchange for a sexual relationship. As her attraction to the young Russian cellist Olga (Sophie Cauer), she is willing to replace others in the ensemble to meet her needs. When Lydia is attacked for her activities, she refuses to apologize or admit guilt.

Similarly, Daniel’s only reaction to the oil disaster that caused HW to go deaf is to demand the money he is owed. He takes Standard Oil’s offer as an insult to his pride, and subsequently makes another deal with Union Oil to keep his operations going. Like Lydia, he is unaware of the collateral damage he causes or the lives he threatens. Likewise, he is unwilling to apologize, and Eli’s attempts to get him to talk about sending HW away and leaving him only escalate his anger.

Downward spirals overtake both Lydia Tar and Daniel Plainview

We see the impact the challenge has on these characters when faced with ultimatums. Lydia suffers for several days from a series of stains on her heritage; a video of her bullying Juilliard goes viral and causes online outrage, and incriminating emails sent to a former student are exposed by her prosecution. This does not stop Lydia from promoting her new book. She continues not to state her guilt when her partner Sharon (Nina Hoss) forbids her to see her daughter. Only here do we see how much Lydia’s current trauma is related to her own actions; she hid her actions towards her student for years without even thinking about the consequences.

Similarly, Daniel’s understanding of reality begins to crumble after he has achieved more wealth than he ever imagined. HW returns to see his father in an insane alcoholic state. Although HW is simply acting to get his father to accept him and wants to prove that he can start his own business in Mexico, Daniel sees HW’s accomplishments as a potential challenge. He continues to humiliate the man he once treated like a son, revealing his true parentage and insulting him.

Both performances are teetering on the edge of insanity.

The excellence of these two performances allows them to reach extreme points of insanity that somehow still feel realistic despite their increasingly ridiculous nature. Lydia attacks her second in command, Eliot Kaplan (Mark Strong) during a live performance at a concert she has scheduled, and Daniel beats Eli to death in a bowling alley after demanding that he declare that he is a false prophet. Both scenarios feature a dark sense of humor; Lydia ends up working a miserable job overseas playing music for video games, and Daniel delivers ridiculous monologues about water and milkshakes.

These characters are all at once adorable, terrifying and utterly irresistible due to the performances of Cate Blanchett and Daniel Day-Lewis. These anti-heroes have enough personality and wit to make them utterly irresistible to watch, though we know they’ll reap even more damage in the long run. Part of our enjoyment of watching these films is that we achieve a downward spiral that they are guaranteed to encounter.