poll thomas anderson 2

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

i love a good few of these but come on it's phantom thread

i also read inherent vice before watching the movie but i’m confused about how the movie supposedly suffered in comparison. other than some altered plot points they both have this wonderful, hallucinatory progression, gliding through ever deepening confusions. movie has the added bonus of a great soundtrack and excellent performances

it’s my vote here but i still haven’t seen phantom thread

I mean, film has its limitations and I can understand that, but Pynchon Hallucinatory and IV-The-Movie Hallucinatory are continents/sunken cities apart.

Sad to see so few people repping for Hard Eight. It's, y'know, a '90s indie film but much more ambitious than most of that crop (although I do have a soft spot for even lesser '90s indie films). It's all about the performances imo. Phillip Baker Hall and John C. Reilly are great, as is Samuel L. Jackson in a smaller role. It would be another director's best film.

Clearly, I need to rewatch The Master. I thought it was fine the one time I saw it but I'm not sure I was in the best headspace to appreciate it.

Hard Eight was for a long time his best film.

Pynchon Hallucinatory and IV-The-Movie Hallucinatory are continents/sunken cities apart.

― circa1916, Saturday, June 9, 2018 4:31 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don’t think this is true about that particular book!

which i love, don’t get me wrong

i really loved The Master. so many great performances and wonderful moments in that. that one scene with "Get Thee Behind Me Satan" playing. the other scene where Philip Seymour Hoffman is commanding a room full of singers and it slows pans over to reveal everyone is naked is awesome and unexpected.

i admit i haven't seen most of these. Punch Drunk Love was nice but it's been at least 15 years. TWBB was a great film but i've never wanted to go back and rewatch it.

i also read inherent vice before watching the movie but i’m confused about how the movie supposedly suffered in comparison

flappy's long post otm

i like the frogs in magnolia too but can't stand the wall-to-wall score or all the tv "arcs" and there's way more of those than there is of the frogs

LOVED punch-drunk love as a high schooler and don't mind its "excusing" sandler's behavior which i don't know that it does, but yes emily watson is only a surreal device and it is p boring to me now to watch a movie about a guy and his surreal device

there will be blood has that terrific score and a couple of good long scenes with a lot of tension and scenery, but its big moments (thinking of camera assuming role of demonic presence in baptism scene) aren't rly any less showy or mannered than boogie nights doing i am cuba, and in the end the movie is worse kubrick cosplay than BN is altman

tho the back half of BN isn't rly altman right? it's scorsese, and alfred molina setpiece aside i find it a drag. i like the movie and actually think goodfellas is like hugely overrated and have never loved it in the endless-rewatch hangout way i think it works for many, but come on boogie nights is not better than goodfellas. ultimate darkness and danger much better-integrated into + present alongside exhilarating romp section in the latter, for one. also it comes up with its own camera moves

the master was rly great

haven't seen phantom thread yet.

voted for p thread, a perfect movie to me

voted for p thread, a perfect movie to me

voted for p thread, a perfect movie to me

cool

lol

I think phantom thread may be my choice too, but now I want to go back and watch boogie nights, magnolia, and punch drunk love again

LOVED punch-drunk love as a high schooler and don't mind its "excusing" sandler's behavior which i don't know that it does, but yes emily watson is only a surreal device and it is p boring to me now to watch a movie about a guy and his surreal device.

pudding scam in punch drunk love is best scam since penny round off scam in superman iii, that movie should be called pudding drunk love airline miles

that movie should be called pudding drunk love airline miles

― Philip Nunez, Monday, June 11, 2018 10:43 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

ok, Hard Eight: definitely "early work" and some moments I thought were truly maladroit but John C. Reilly's character is a pretty classic PTA loser. "I know three kinds of karate!"

Reilly is pretty reliably one of the best elements of any film he's in, I find.

Phantom Thread is the first PTA film I've really liked. The Master and There Will Be Blood were OK. Still can't stand Magnolia. He still doesn't know how to end a movie.

He should always end them with a dong shot imo.

i like pretty much all these movies (i didn't like magnolia much but i only saw it when it first came out and i wasn't sure what to expect and i'm betting i'd like it more if i rewatched it). there will be blood, the master, and phantom thread are the best. voted for the master because the subject matter is more intrinsically interesting to me.

Reilly is pretty reliably one of the best elements of any film he's in, I find.

yeah, this guy is really a treasure. Philip Seymour Hoffman level imo.

The Master was great but this is still TWBB for me, crackpot epic with killer score.

TWBB might get my vote, i found it to be really compelling. Though I should rescreen it sometime to see how it holds up.

though I do really like Boogie Nights (another contender for my vote) it's not better than Goodfellas, not even close. Goodfellas is both darker and a lot funnier, plus BN doesn't feel like anything other than PTA transposing the Goodfellas aesthetic and structure to a new setting and different type of insular underworld, however unlike Scorsese it's one that he doesn't seem to particularly understand. And maybe he didn't care to, and he wasn't interested in the darker elements beyond bits of more Tarantino-style splatter violence. It gets by on the fact that it's extremely well-made and everyone in the film is pretty great and mostly likable.

I still can't get past the vacuum at the center of TWBB, and when I look past the vacuum I see Paul Dano.

And the Dano gazes back at you.

It just occurred to me every one of his movies is about a scam or someone scamming another. I used to think his movies were about how he didn’t have a good relationship with his father but now I see it’s about scams.
Maybe phantom thread will be his last movie; it’s the one that seems most at peace with the scam.

Boogie nights then hard eight.

I didn't know The Phantom Thread was so well received here

And maybe he didn't care to, and he wasn't interested in the darker elements

I think that's it, and a major part of what makes Boogie Nights so great. Star 80, Hardcore, and other films had already gone that route--successfully and unsuccessfully--and at a certain point, that approach is just turgid. Boogie Nights completely turns all of that on its head. Other than the Colonel and Little Bill, no one is punished. I love that about the film; someone else might find it willfully naive and destructive, and that's valid.

Lil Bill's wife and her last dude sure get punished.

Right--and the people at the donut shop, and a few other peripheral characters. I was thinking more of the principals.

I’m not complaining exactly, Boogie Nights is the only structure and style Goodfellas rip-off that works on its own terms more or less.

Just watched Boogie Nights and I sure don’t know what to make of it but the ensemble is great.

Starting to suspect I will vote for The Master

also realized that all of his movies are 'epics' except Punch Drunk Love and Phantom Thread (and Hard Eight yea?)

Voting on the basis of replay value and sentimental feelings here.

Boogie nights has a stellar soundtrack N heather graham and Julianne Moore, two class actresses. Perfectly captures the drug use N dead end of the porn industry and there’s a reason it’s never been bettered today. It was otm

Hard eight is a minor classic and to me that’s better than epics any day - don’t imagine I’ll care to watch magnolia or there will be blood any time
Soon. Inherent vice was amazing but I would rather go back to a classic comfort movie like boogIe,

I’m no movIe critic, diss me as you feel

I don’t see boogie as an epic unless you think long movies are default epic.

it's def an epic, ensemble cast + decade long span + altman-esque mosaic. fwiw i think Nashville is an epic too, and imo Boogie Nights is more similar to Nashville than Goodfellas.

I've seen them all and vote Phantom Thread. maybe just recency bias tho, haven't rewatched any of the other ones in a long time.

boogie nights insistent use of "you got the touch" makes me wonder how high a paul thomas anderson directed Transformers movie would have rated.

https://media.giphy.com/media/fdo9pw26q2euQ/giphy.gif

i guess there's a megatron/starscream dynamic between philip seymour hoffman and joaquin phoenix

also realized that all of his movies are 'epics' except Punch Drunk Love and Phantom Thread (and Hard Eight yea?)

― flappy bird, Tuesday, June 12, 2018 9:46 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and inherent vice

which is what i ended up voting for

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