Happy belated birthday, Paul Thomas Anderson. One of the most influential directors of the past thirty years celebrated his 53rd birthday yesterday and I wanted to go through his filmography and rank his nine feature films. When it comes to Anderson, fans of him all have a different order that could be the opposite of how I feel or how you feel. That’s what makes him so great is that all of his films are very divisive.
9. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
There’s a lot of movies that people love that I don’t like very much. It’s not that I don’t “get” Punch-Drunk Love, it’s that I don’t like the plot at all. The performances from Adam Sandler and Philip Seymour Hoffman are very good, but I find the plot and whole direction of it to be difficult to follow. It’s weird, but not in an appealing way that makes me want to rewatch it. What is interesting about Punch-Drunk Love is that it’s the last time Anderson worked with composer Jon Brion and the last time we saw Luis Guzman in a PTA film. This was a clear switch in his film making from creating gritty films set in the 70s and 80s to more pretentious films that have an elegant feel to them.
My Rating: 1/5 Stars
8. Inherent Vice (2014)
I like tolerate Inherent Vice more than Punch-Drunk Love, mainly because I like the cast a lot more. It includes Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Hong Chau, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, and Benicio del Toro. While no one necessarily gives a bad performance here in Inherent Vice, no one gives a knockdown great one. A lot of the characters felt very aloof and detached which made it hard to connect with the film. My biggest issue that I do have with the film might go back to how big the cast is. This movie is really difficult to follow because of how many moving pieces there are. Anderson has succeeded with big casts and moving pieces before with Magnolia or Boogie Nights, but it didn’t work here.
My Rating: 2/5 Stars
7. Phantom Thread (2017)
Phantom Thread is probably Andersons most pretentious film and I say that in the best way possible. This was his second collaboration with the great Daniel Day-Lewis and it showed him a much softer light than we saw him in There Will Be Blood. Both characters are great and that’s attributed to Day-Lewis as an actor and Anderson as a director who was able to make him a chameleon in his movies. Phantom Thread is visually stunning, but does have some pacing issues. It’s only 2 hours and 10 minutes long, but at times it can feel like a slog. In Phantom Thread, the highs are very high, but the lows are low and that’s why I don’t have it higher.
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
6. Licorice Pizza (2021)
There’s a lot of movies that when I seem them initially I like them and then overtime I sour on them. Licorice Pizza is the opposite. When I saw it for the first time last summer I thought that it was a snarky film and that the relationship between Gary and Alana was problematic. While I still think the relationship is problematic, I find the plot to be more palatable and was better with a second watch. The setting of Licorice Pizza is jovial and really is Andersons sweet spot as it takes place in the 70s. I find that Anderson excels most when he’s making films in that time period, and he created a solid film in a pretty bleak 2021 when it comes to movies.
My Rating: 3/5 Stars
5. Hard Eight (1996)
Hard Eight was Anderson’s directorial debut and it’s a film I love. He delivers a gritty feeling to a film about hustling in casinos in Reno, Nevada that makes me feel kind of uncomfortable. You can tell that it’s low budget off the camera quality, but I also think that’s what gives Hard Eight its charm. What also adds to the charm of Hard Eight is that the first four billed all give great performances. John C. Riley, Philip Baker Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Samuel L. Jackson are all outstanding in this movie and it’s because everyone feels believable in their roles. When I’m watching this film, I believe that John C. Riley is a homeless beggar that gets plucked from obscurity. I’m able to believe that Philip Baker Hall is a regular at the casinos that he’s scamming.
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
4. Boogie Nights (1997)
A lot of Anderson fans would argue that Boogie Nights is his magnum opus and it is a really great film. It’s not my personal favorite, but the ensemble cast of William H. Macy, Luis Guzman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, Don Cheadle, and Nicole Ari Parker highlight the greatness of John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, and Mark Wahlberg in this film. Each cast member is given a job and they all execute their jobs perfectly. One that’s worth noting is William H. Macy because I think PTA hates him. He makes him play two depressing characters in Boogie Nights and in Magnolia. The whole time Macy is in this movie, his wife if being railed by other guys and he takes matters into his own hands splattering his brain on the wall.
I don’t want to only talk about the performances, but the performances in Boogie Nights are so riveting. I generally don’t find Mark Wahlberg to be a good actor, but him as Dirk Diggler (great name) is peak cinema. He kills this role. An aspect about this film that I love in addition to the performances is moments like the pool party scene where you just see the grungy and dirty atmosphere of these hippy pornstars doing drugs and having fun. It’s just fun to watch. “You’re not the boss of me, Jack. You’re not the king of Dirk. I’m the boss of me, I’m the king of me, I’m Dirk Diggler. I’m the star. It’s my big dick and I say when we roll.”
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
3. The Master (2012)
The Master is one of the films that falls in the purview of Anderson’s pretentious phase, but it’s a magnificent piece of cinema. Anderson teams up with Joaquin Phoenix for the first time and the two are actually pairing back up for Anderson’s next project, which is exciting because Phoenix is dynamite in this role. Phoenix is one of the best actors of the last thirty years and his well known for Her, Joker, and Gladiator, but I think his best role is in The Master. He’s a disillusioned war vet who gets swindled by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character, Lancaster Dodd (great name) to join his cult, and then grows to worship him. He even goes to the point of fighting those who question him. Phoenix is awesome in this.
From a cinematography standpoint, this is a pretty film. The most memorable shot has to be when Phoenix is passed out on the ship, hanging above the deck and you can see the blue sea surrounding him. We get a lot of fantastic shots in this movie and that just adds to the spectacle that is The Master.
My Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
2. Magnolia (1999)
When I did my top 100 movie rankings at the start of 2023, I put Magnolia at seventeen. I love this movie for many reasons and one of them is that this is a three hour film that flies. In no way does this feel like a monotonous, three hour slog. You watch the story of multiple lonely people that just want to be loved and it hurts to see. You attach yourself to these characters because they all have relatable traits. Whether it’s John C. Riley’s character, who is a bumbling cop that can’t get out of his own way, Julianne Moores character, who’s addicted to drugs while caring for her ailing father, or even Jeremy Blackman who is pushed too far by his dad to be successful. Anderson does a great job with their development.
I mentioned with Boogie Nights, but this is a sad William H. Macy performance. He’s a has-been, celebrity that just wants to be loved by the bartender at the local watering hole. He wants to be loved so bad that he gets braces because the bartender has braces. But he’s just so sad and pathetic that you feel awful for him. Another part of Magnolia I adore is that it has a fantastic needle drop with One by Harry Nilsson. It plays at the beginning of the film when we see the lonely characters that we’ll be following for the next three hours.
One final thought on Magnolia is that PTA directs my favorite Tom Cruise performance and Cruise delivers my favorite line in film history. The first time we hear him talk is seeing him as an Andrew Tate like character that screams, “Respect the cock! And tame the c**t! Tame it!”
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
1. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Clocking in at number one is the religious western drama starring Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood. First off, great title. Before you even watch the film you know off rip that it’s going to be intense and PTA delivers that tension. This is without a doubt Daniel Day-Lewis’ best performance as Daniel Plainview, from the way that he delivers certain lines to actually feeling like he’s really an oil magnate. There’s a lot of intense scenes in There Will Be Blood like when Plainview kills Eli or the “I ABANDONED MY BOY!” scene, but the one that turns my gut the most is when Plainview beats the shit out of Eli Sunday (played by Paul Dano) and smushes his face in the mud. Just a wild scene to watch.
I brought up this point with Phantom Thread and The Master, but the cinematography in There Will Be Blood is beautiful. The color palate is gray, brown, and orange, but never feels bland. The explosions from the drill sites look so cool and at times are breath taking. There’s so much I love about this movie, but the biggest thing I took away from it was Day-Lewis’ accent. I will talk to myself or my dog like Plainview often; “DON’T GET THICK WITH ME NELLIE.”
“Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I’m so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? Watch it. Now, my straw reaches across the room and starts to drink your milkshake. I drink your milkshake!” Poor Eli Sunday met a brutal demise.
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
