I Just Want to Talk about Phantom Thread Today

A Q&A with the writer and critic Adam Nayman on Reynolds, Alma, and his Paul Thomas Anderson book, Masterworks.

“For the hungry boy! My name is Alma.”

I care more about the New Year’s Eve scene in Phantom Thread than any New Year’s Eve I’ve actually — begrudgingly, miserably — celebrated. (I do not like New Year’s Eve and have never enjoyed myself on this holiday.) After the persnickety couturier Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) marries his muse/lover Alma (Vicky Krieps), their relationship reaches an impasse. They’ve always engaged in a battle of wills and volley of frustration, but it has all turned cold: he’s all frowns, furrowed brows, retorts, scowls. When the couple returns home from a holiday dinner with a particularly snobby client, Alma announces that it’s New Year’s Eve and she wants to go dancing. Reynolds keeps his eyes fixed on his sketchbook.

So Alma goes to this raucous New Year’s Eve costume party; not long after, her husband shows up looking for her. He stalks through the ballroom’s chaos and cacophony, getting mixed up in the balloons and the confetti and the inordinate numb…