Paul Thomas Anderson

this man can do no wrong. Magnolia has been my favourite film for a while now, Punch-Drunk Love is up there too. I just watched There Will Be Blood, FFFffuuuuuuu- I was pretty much a sobbing mess when Dan was in the chapel

this thread is for gushing

EDIT: oh, AND thanks to someone in the "few films recently watched thread" I hear that he has a new film out this year!... with Philip Seymour Hoffman.... about religion.....

All of his movies are pretty damn powerful but There Will Be Blood takes the prize. Daniel Day Lewis scared the shit out of me and I both loved and hated him throughout the entire movie. Magnolia is really good as well but the scene where everyone is singing... no no.

Have you seen Boogie Nights yet? Feel the heat, man.

  On 4/10/2012 at 5:10 PM, Squee said:

Have you seen Boogie Nights yet? Feel the heat, man.

I have not, will probably watch it on the weekend.

JULIANNE MOORE

  On 4/10/2012 at 5:12 PM, verticalhold said:

  On 4/10/2012 at 5:10 PM, Squee said:

Have you seen Boogie Nights yet? Feel the heat, man.

 

I have not, will probably watch it on the weekend.

 

 

 

 

JULIANNE MOORE

You better watch it right now.

yea i think there will be blood is in my top 5 favorite movies. such mood and ambiance. amazing acting. killer cinematography. perfect soundtrack. it has it all.

Easily one of my favourite directors; if not the.

For many years I had only seen the second half of Magnolia, but I still loved it. I even listened to a shitload of Aimee Mann because of it.

Boogie Nights is easily one of my favourite ever films. It really does have everything. But the story is so perfectly formed too. It's astounding for a major debut really.

There Will Be Blood is also in my Top 10 films, I'd say. A lot is owed to Day Lewis' performance, but the visual style compliments the story and character. It's a very different style to Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but so many of the brooding landscapes could be classed as high-art.

I don't think I even realised that Anderson had directed those films until I watched the first 10 minutes of TWBB and had to find out who had directed it. In fact, I remember having downloaded the torrent whilst it was still in the cinema and laying in my bed watching it with my headphones on. I had only downloaded it because I was bored and wanted to see what the Oscar-fuss was about. I paused, googled, and then it suddenly dawned on me that this guy had quietly become my favourite director.

Oh yeah, and he's responsible for bringing John C. Reilly into the mainstream.

Crazy people often put Christopher Nolan in a similar box to Kubrick, and I guess there are some similarities if you look hard enough, but in terms of style I don't think anyone comes closer to Kubrick than Anderson did in TWBB.

Also, yeah, watch Boogie Nights straight away.

I want to watch TWBB when I get home.

He's astoundingly great.

Does anyone else see Boogie Nights as sort of an R rated family movie? Besides all of the sex, drugs, and debauchery, the movie really has a heart of gold and is unusually insightful for such a young writer/director. I think he was 26 at the time(!) Very non-judgmental in the way it views people's problems and how they all forgive eachother and support one another at the end. It's also the best blend of comedy and drama I have ever seen. You're simultaneously laughing at and caring about Dirk & friends at once.

punch-drunk love is the only truly great movie he did

VH - When you say you sobbed during the chapel scene, do you mean from laughing? I don't remember this being anything other than hilarious...am I remembering wrong?

Agreed. I mostly laughed throughout TWBB. It's a macabre comedy.

there will be blood is film making of the highest caliber

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:17 PM, The Overlook said:

VH - When you say you sobbed during the chapel scene, do you mean from laughing? I don't remember this being anything other than hilarious...am I remembering wrong?

no I mean I found it incredibly sad,

sure there's something comedic in it but it was also just really powerful and it got to me

hmm. I watched a very different movie!

or you're made of stone

No, I'm genuinely curious. Did anybody else find the chapel scene even remotely...sad? I thought it was meant to be LOLorific and that was very much my read of it anyhow.

well I do find the scene pretty hilarious, how Daniel's clearly playing it up for Eli but it's just that one line that I find very moving

I found it mostly menacing and uncomfortable, just imagining what kind of homicidal thoughts Plainview was having as he was being made to repent.

No Country is better, though.

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:48 PM, gmanyo said:

No Country is better, though.

get out

JUST SAYIN

Both great movies. I loved the first scene in There Will Be Blood. The music worked perfectly with the oil drilling. And the last scene really is as good as people say it is.

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:51 PM, gmanyo said:

And the last scene really is as good as people say it is.

lol, what exactly are you saying here? All I seem to hear from people re. the final scene is "huh?" I thought it was a bit odd that Eli didn't age but it doesnt detract much from the film for me. I also agree about the music at the start, just one haunting drone and we know Daniel perfectly from these first 10mins. Excellent

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:54 PM, verticalhold said:

  On 4/10/2012 at 6:51 PM, gmanyo said:

And the last scene really is as good as people say it is.

 

lol, what exactly are you saying here? All I seem to hear from people re. the final scene is "huh?" I thought it was a bit odd that Eli didn't age but it doesnt detract much from the film for me. I also agree about the music at the start, just one haunting drone and we know Daniel perfectly from these first 10mins. Excellent

Huh, I thought people liked it. It gets a lot of hype. I thought it was fucking amazing.

It seems to me like the beginning showed that Daniel was an entrepreneur and had ambition, but then as the movie progressed he got harder and more greedy and his life got worse as he tried to use money and power to replace the lack of human connection in his life.

i agree that you can't go wrong with a movie directed by PTA. even Hard Eight is really good in its own slow-paced way (& probably has Gwyneth Paltrow in her best role!). i think one of anderson's talents is making the audience feel sympathetic towards characters they wouldn't normally care for, cause they are either incredibly stupid or just VERY naive (like a lot of the cast in boogie nights or hard eight) or really manipulative (tom cruise in magnolia, TWBB of course...)!

BTW re:TWBB - i also really like the scene after DDL's speech, where all the workers start to come in like in a procession, and there's this incredibly sad piece of music which really does not bode well for those people.

also if you haven't seen boogie nights, go ahead and watch it- seldom have i seen a movie thus funny & sad at the same time, while dealing with a subject that is so close to a lot of people's hearts! (no sarcasm here.)

punchdrunk love is my favorite but i feel i am repeating myself