poll thomas anderson 2

I need a second watch of phantom. Until then Magnolia.

The Master easily for me

The last three films constitute a helluva streak.

Inherent Vice disappointed me because I (foolishly) read the book immediately prior. I should watch it again.

I also haven't seen the first three; maybe I'll try to do that before I vote.

Hard to even pick my favorite ending from among TWBB, The Master, and Phantom Thread

Am sure I voted Magnolia last time. Now it's a three-way contest between that and the last two.

Punch-Drunk Love, but I should probably give the last couple a chance.

my vote's unchanged from before, so Boogie Nights it is. I think that and Inherent Vice are classics, and the Master is p interesting but the rest I do not care about at all. He's oddly erratic filmmaker.

did you watch Phantom Thread?

write-in vote for mortal kombat

not yet, primarily because the subject matter sounds painfully boring plus I totally am not interested in Daniel Day Lewis, an actor who's ouevre is vastly overrated imo

There’s the Shakey we know and love

sorry, I've been in a meeting most of the day :)

Day-Lewis as an actor has never excited me but this movie succeeded in doing so.

Inherent Vice disappointed me because I (foolishly) read the book immediately prior.

I read the book a couple years before the movie came out and I can't imagine making heads or tails of the movie without the book. it would probably still be a delirious trip tho.

my vote is for boogie nights, which is often compared to goodfellas, but it shouldn't be cause it's better

I never got around to reading Inherent Vice, but I had no problem following the movie. The plot (such as it is) seems mostly beside the point - as it often is with noir - and I enjoyed it as a rambling series of character sketches and setpieces v much in the vein in Altman's Long Goodbye or Mitchum's Big Sleep, and with a really great combination of sadness and humor. I mean, Brolin eating in every scene, culminating in eating the weed (gotta eat something!) is hilarious.

an alternately affable and tragic shaggy dog story

also Boogie Nights better than Goodfellas lol stop trollin bro

I think my previous vote was TWBB, but it might be Phantom Thread here.

voodoo chili otm

Yeah, Boogie Nights is totally better than Goodfellas and will probably get my vote.

Still haven't seen the last two (although I have an unwatched copy of IV I should get to before the poll is done). I at least like everything he's done. Haven't seen Magnolia in approximately forever, though, so can't really judge how much my tastes may have changed in the interim.

Boogie Nights is good, but still can’t shake the smell of young, talented filmmaker in thrall to his influences. Goodfellas is totally a better film.

I read the book a couple years before the movie came out and I can't imagine making heads or tails of the movie without the book.

i couldn't make a lick of sense of it but I'm tempted to vote for it because Josh Brolin is hot as fuck in it.

I voted Magnolia last time.

I haven't seen Phantom Thread yet, so this remains a toss-up between Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, the only two of his movies that I flat-out loved on first viewing. Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love both feel a bit too much like stunts, to me, and while I could see The Master growing on me in time, Inherent Vice, as much fun as it is, just feels like an even wackier version of the already-sufficiently-wacky The Long Goodbye. I haven't seen Hard Eight since it played on cable in the late 90s.

boogie nights still my vote also but phantom thread is prob 2nd now

The Master

The Master

The Master

but haven't seen magnolia or phantom thread

Also read Inherent Vice before I saw the film and the film suffered in comparison. Even tho it’s ~minor Pynchon~ it’s such a colorful, mystical, dream/cartoon and the movie just felt so flat and surface in comparison. Definitely interested in seeing it again removed from that and seeing it as it’s own thing.

Phantom Thread was wonderful. It felt small in a way, not aiming for the fences, but it was totally successful and I would gladly watch it again and again.

I didn’t really rate this guy until TWBB, which I didn’t love but had marks of a new and interesting artistic voice.

Was kind of hoping I'd be the only Boogie Nights vote, but I guess not. His films always interest me, but becoming a textbook case of what Sarris called "strained seriousness."

that is the wrongest descriptor of phantom thread

The Master

The Master

(xpost) That's actually the film I'd most apply it to.

Phantom Thread is a romcom

“Troubled weirdos struggle to communicate” is how I’d sum up his oeuvre for the most part. It’s a shtick I don’t think I’ll get tired of.

I’ve heard it bounced elsewhere, but “fucked up weirdos making their own family” is def a recurring theme.

And yeah it’s a good theme that has legs.

glad to see so much support for The Master -- the reviews I read seemed kind of lukewarm about it but then I watched it and was rapt. There Will Be Blood is the overrated one for me.

The Master > Boogie Nights > Inherent Vice > There Will Be Blood imo

There Will Be Blood is his weakest by far imo (or rather, emptiest).

I'm surprised how much TWBB is hated around these parts, I think it's fantastic, and it marked a real interesting shift in his approach that has carried forward in the subsequent films. It was the moment when he truly found his voice.

If Paul Dano’s character was played by someone better it would’ve worked more for me. Guy kinda ruins the movie imo.

I mean, hard as hell role, but shit is he not up to the task.

glad to see so much support for The Master -- the reviews I read seemed kind of lukewarm about it but then I watched it and was rapt. There Will Be Blood is the overrated one for me.

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Saturday, June 9, 2018 1:15 AM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I saw it when it came out, two days in a row, and was nonplussed both times... second night was with friends, all fans of PTA, we all left just sort of scratching our heads, unsatisfied but unable to articulate why. I actually don't think I've seen it since but it's the movie of his that's stuck with me the most, it has sort of has the Vertigo effect of a movie that feels like it never really ends or begins, as if it exists out of time. I haven't seen it in years, definitely not since PSH's death and maybe not since that opening weekend. But TWBB, which I loved at the time and have seen maybe 3-4 times, seems overwrought and ridiculous in retrospect. Probably suffers from memefication of milkshake ending and DDL's performance which again just seems silly compared to Phantom Thread. A great movie I should revisit... eventually.

Boogie Nights is great but Altman cosplay. My second favorite. Magnolia was my favorite movie when I was 11 but I don't think I've seen the whole thing since then. Not sure if it'd hit me as cloying & saccharine now, because I still love the singalong and the frogs.

Punch Drunk Love was my favorite for years but after watching it for the first time in a few years a couple months ago I sorta turned on it. Beautiful moments, Adam Sandler is amazing & it's really a drag no one else has hired him or pushed him to do another performance like that. PTA, very astutely, saw how much rage and male insecurity was in Happy Gilmore/Billy Madison/The Waterboy/The Wedding Singer and how that could be used and turned on its head. But the movie excuses some awful behavior from Sandler's character, particularly destroying the bathroom in the restaurant. Emily Watson forgiving to the point of absurdity - basically a pixie savior girl. I just didn't find it as moving as I used to.

Inherent Vice is really fun, liked it when it came out and even more when I watched it last summer. "There's something wrong with your couch!" pops up in my head a lot. circa1916 otm about Phantom Thread, it was small and unforced and very funny and it's definitely the most successful example of PTA's post-TWBB "loose" / "are they making this up as they go along?" approach.

...and I haven't seen Hard Eight lol

It’s so good as well, you can barely hear what is being said, but it doesn’t matter because the focal point of the scene is Claudia’s face. Love it a lot.

Ah no, the scene where Frank looks at his dying father and goes from the shell he’s built for himself to anger he’s held onto for years to this wounded little boy in almost no time is just... spectacular. Cruise was robbed that year, robbed.

I agree with all of that.

Punch-Drunk Love and Magnolia are, to my mind, better films than There Will Be Blood. I haven’t seen anything he’s made since then.

The Master above all. I have to maybe put Magnolia second.

I was so fucking disappointed with Phantom Thread. DDL is no PSH.

Er, rather, just the quoted part

I loved Magnolia back in the day but it's been twenty years so I should probably review.

Hard Eight isn't PTA's best film but it would be hundreds of lesser directors' best film. It's definitely top tier PTA. Kind of the apotheosis of '90s indie film aesthetic imo, and everyone is great in it.

xp I’ve read the post and clarification several times and I still don’t know who you’re disagreeing with

Somewhat embarrassing to admit, as someone who would identify as a fan, that I still haven't seen Inherent Vice or The Phantom Thread. I even own copies of both. There's just no excuse.

gyac otm about magnolia and the ending. the whole relationship and interaction btw jcr and melora walters is so great. maybe i'm just a sucker for kindness being depicted in a movie.

there will be blood is really really funny to me.

I think it's less just kindness depicted in a movie and more kindness in a movie filled with people who are aggressively not kind, for their own respective reasons.

It's been a while since I saw it, but as I remember it I thought William H. Macy was pretty affecting, too, as a glimmer of wounded romanticism in a world of cynicism. But that's sort of how I remember the movie, as a bunch of cynical, mean people worn down by their lives that they've forgotten how to be anything else.

anyone still rep for Boogie Nights? I only saw it once and under terrible circumstances, so I've often thought about watching it again (it's sitting in my netflix queue). I always balk at the running time and vague feeling of over-hype and never do though

lol forgot to check the poll results...interesting

boogie nights is a great movie, it moves so kinetically that it feels 60 minutes long and is just a great ensemble piece

I saw a preview screening of Magnolia in late December 1999, and it fit the moment perfectly.
I like seeing people in a movie being kind, too, but seeing it again a few years later, I can't get over the feeling that, for some of the characters, the kindness is imposed from above by the director instead of rising from a realistic appraisal of what the characters would do.

Boogie Nights used to be one of my favorite movies. If I'd seen it at some point in the last fifteen years, I would more confidently count it among my current favorites.

I really just need to do a complete PTA watch/rewatch, is what I'm realizing here. I haven't even seen The Master since its theatrical release.

I think Boogie Nights is tight. He's totally in virtuoso/movie reference mode. Some Scorsese here, some I am Cuba there, some Altman, etc. Which is not a bad thing, he's showing off, and rightfully so! Totally in control of its actors and story and sprawl. How old was he, 27? 28?

Some interesting parallels between his career and that of Tarantino. Except I'd argue that Tarantino, while an extremely adept filmmaker, is still kind of mired in an innate reference-happy immaturity that PTA worked hard to move past or maybe was just smart enough to better disguise. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I largely often find it a distraction or indulgence, even when it works.

I don’t understand this interpretation about Magnolia as being about “kindness” - it’s never been my interpretation. To me, it’s about fatherhood, chance, regret and serendipity. Kindness is something seen in the film, but it’s very much a film that looks at the uglier emotions too.

I wouldn't say it's about kindness, just that the kindness sticks out against the dark backdrop of ugliness (of various origins).

I actually remember pretty clearly leaving an advance screening of the movie way back when with mixed feelings, quipping to a friend that it could have been called "I Hate You, Dad." I must have been ... 24? But I've since come around to a lot of it.

just watched Boogie Nights again thought it held up very well

IV my fave movie of the decade, so that

― dele alli my bookmarks (darraghmac), Friday, 10 August 2018 22:55 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Phantom Thread is better, so that

i could really go either way myself

Sorry, I meant the one about Phantom Thread vs. The Master and DDL vs. PSH was the one I couldn't disagree with more.

There Will Be Blood and The Master both suffer for striving to be the Great American Novel of modern movies.

The best thing about DDL in phantom thread is how funny he is. I had no idea! And in hindsight it’s what makes TWBB enjoyable.

Will admit that my favorite scene in TWBB is the close up of him getting slapped around by Paul Dano.

the blub blub blub sound he makes when he gets baptized is A+

IV > 8 > Phantom > The Master of Teras Kasi

I can't stand Joaquin Phoenix, which makes viewing Inherent Vice and The Master impossible, but even the movies around them misfire for me: I find both of them bludgeoningly antic and boring. Loved Phantom Thread.

I violently disagree with many of them, but man there are some insightful and penetrating takes in this thread. Maybe the best thing about PTA is that he is worth discussing at that level.

Christ what a gauche comment, I’ll get me coat

he should stop playing people with intellectual disabilities. he's bad at it.

i think he's goddamn amazing in the master

A pity he won the Oscar for Joker; he's one of the three or best working mainstream American actors.

Hoffman singing “Slow Boat to China” to Phoenix is one of my favorite film scenes ever.

watching those two performances bounce off of and complement each other is the best romantic comedy of the last decade

Someone explain Phoenix’s appeal

You just stare at his face

It’s a nice thing to take a picture of

Dont rly understand the question

Hes really great in some of his roles, im unconvinced of the framing that says "you must be fans of the individual so"

i would say he embodies freddie quell so completely that it makes me believe i've met the character irl

Joaquin's best performance = a porn-addicted teen in Parenthood

PTA really did a fantastic job of establishing the characters of Plainview and Quell in their respective opening scenes with little to no dialogue. Love the scenes of Quell fucking up over and over again at the start of the film.

https://data.whicdn.com/images/50529197/original.jpg

btw, anderson was apparently able to finish filming the next one, so it might be viewable in a theater someday.

I've never done much of a deep dive into Anderson the person or filmmaker, but I just learned today that he used the same DP for his first five movies, plus Vice, before they apparently stopped getting along. And I guess the relationship between PTA and the DP on "The Master" was pretty fraught, too, which may be why he shot Phantom Thread himself. Who shot the upcoming one, was it another PTA DIY special?

iirc this was discussed on the phantom thread uh thread

One of the more intriguing aspects of Phantom Thread was the revelation that Anderson wasn’t working with his longtime cinematographers. In fact, no cinematographer was ever announced, so everyone assumed Anderson was working as his own director of photography. But the filmmaker tells EW that’s not the case—the film has no single director of photography:

“I should really clarify that. That would be disingenuous and just plain wrong to say that I was the director of photography on the film. The situation was that I work with a group of guys on the last few films and smaller side projects. Basically, in England, we were able to sort of work without an official director of photography. The people I would normally work with were unavailable, and it just became a situation where we collaborated — really in the best sense of the word — as a team. I know how to point the camera in a good direction, and I know a few things. But I’m not a director of photography.”

Robert Elswit, who shot most of Anderson’s films including There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice, was busy shooting Roman J. Israel Esq. at the time, and Mihai Malaimare Jr., who shot The Master, appears to have been otherwise engaged as well. Indeed, Anderson says there’s no director of photography credit at all, but he does single out a few members on the crew who helped handle those duties in a collaborative fashion:

“If you can give credit, Michael Bauman is the gaffer that I’ve worked with for many, many years on a lot of projects. I could veto Mike, I guess, but he held a lot of the keys. There was a camera operator, Colin Anderson, I’ve worked with, and Erik Brown, who was the first assistant cameraman and Jeff Kunkel, who was a grip. It was a real package like that. It was a really easy way of working. You have to be very, very careful because there are way too many good cinematographers that I would not put myself in that class for a second.”

https://collider.com/phantom-thread-cinematographer-paul-thomas-anderson/

Huh. Well, as I understand it those other DPs were not simply unavailable, they had a real falling out, especially Elswit. Unclear why, other than they just stopped getting along.

where'd you hear that?

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/robert-elswit-paul-thomas-anderson-cinematographer-1202044674/

Robert Elswit has shot six films for Paul Thomas Anderson and won an Academy Award for his work on “There Will Be Blood,” but the cinematographer doesn’t expect to work with Anderson again. During an appearance on the Light the Fuse podcast, Elswit didn’t have great things to say about their working relationship: “God, I don’t know what it is anymore,” he said. “It’s like a bad married couple. Unpleasant.”

Asked whether he could see them collaborating again, Elswit didn’t sound optimistic. “I don’t know. Probably not. You know, it depends on how he feels. I would do it again…I didn’t enjoy myself on ‘Inherent Vice’…It was a combination of me and Paul just not getting along, and I can be as immature as him.”

Part 1: https://soundcloud.com/user-552949050/ep-34-robert-elswit-interview
Part 2 (this is where he talks about PTA): https://soundcloud.com/user-552949050/ep-35-robert-elswit-interview