Paul Thomas Anderson's films

[joplinpicasso]

All hail PTA! He lovingly rips off his idols and indulges in his own movies and he don't care what you think! There Will Be Blood has yet to be dethroned as my favorite film, and everything else is pensive gold. I usually use Magnolia as hypothetical litmus test of my true friends. So, so excited for The Master, especially because Jonny Greenwood's rejoining for the score! http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/

[richardp]

PTA has yet to make a movie that's not absolutely perfect. Even Punk Drunk Love was flawless in my book, and that seems to be the one film that everyone likes the least from him.

In terms of ranking his pictures, I'd say:

There Will Be Blood (also my favorite movie)
Boogie Nights
Magnolia
Punch Drunk Love
Sydney

I couldn't be more excited that Greenwood is on board for The Master. Easily one of my most anticipated movies.

[thevoid99]

So far...

Boogie Nights
There Will Be Blood
Magnolia
Punch-Drunk Love
Sydney

I'm also excited for The Master as I'm going to do an Auteurs profile on Anderson next year as well as write an essay on Boogie Nights for my Favorite Film series.

[frankie teardrop]

i have not seen sydney but i do love quite a lot of his work. magnolia is my favorite, closely followed by there will be blood. couldn't get into punch drunk love but should give it another shot one of these days.

[Collin]

There Will Be Blood is one of the best films of the decade, the kind of film that years from now film study classes will continue to study and analyze. It's funny that it's main competition at the Oscars was No Country For Old Men, which is a film that, I feel, will have a similar impact. 2007 was a fuckin' year for film, that's for sure.

[Corvus T. Cosmonaut]

There Will Be Blood was brilliant and may be a reason to remember PTA in 40 years. Boogie Nights was also pretty great, always a little bit better than you remember it being.

The rest I could do without.

[joplinpicasso]

See, I was introduced to PTA through TWBB. Then I worked through Magnolia -> PDL -> Sydney over these years. I JUST watched Boogie Nights last night, haha, and I must say I really found it entertaining and adorable. Parts of it have an Aronofsky feel, but on the whole it's shot beautifully, with Anderson-esque characters and impeccable direction. Feels very similar to Magnolia obviously (due to it being an ensemble cast), and it was hard for me to not compare it constantly as an ensemble TWBB with a less tragic outcome. The snide Anderson hyper-realism and sudden bursts of violence are in full-force, both of which I love.

I'm still digesting it, in a way. I become more attached to it as it went on, with the characters evolving from ideals and emotions into human beings with pasts that have unfolded before my eyes. I think the less I knew of Daniel Plainview's origins and mind, the more attached to and critical I became of him, like an old friend.

After watching the others religiously, and viewing BN and Sydney once, I'd rank:

There Will Be Blood
Magnolia
Punch-Drunk Love
Boogie Nights
Sydney

[theruiner]

If I'm being honest, Magnolia is really the only PTA movie I actually liked. Which is a shame, because it's one of my top five favorite movies, so I really wish I liked more of his stuff. I still haven't seen Sydney, though, so I don't know about that one yet.

That being said, the good will he garnered because of Magnolia keeps me coming back for every movie he puts out. I'll definitely be there for The Master, too. Hopefully I'll end up liking another one of his movies one of these days.

[richardp]

Tom Cruise's performance in Magnolia is one of the most gripping performances I've ever seen. How he didn't win an Oscar for that is beyond me.

Same can be said for Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Both are my two favorite performances ever. Although, DDL deservedly won Best Actor.

[joplinpicasso]

PTA definitely brings out the best in actors (Adam Sandler in PDL included).

[Ocean Blooms]

PTA definitely brings out the best in actors (Adam Sandler in PDL included).

Exactly! "Punch-Drunk Love" is an awesome movie. Most people put this particular movie at the bottom of their lists in terms of PTA films, this ones a little higher for me personally. And yes, if Adam Sandler wanted to be an awesome actor, he truly could be, this movie is great proof of it.