The bohemian reputation surrounding the name of Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as the fiery controversy surrounding his work, is simply unmatched among his contemporaries. His story is that of a self-taught virtuoso, the Hollywood equivalent of a jack-of-all-trades, who wrote his own scripts and directed his films with his own acting troupe. At the turn of the millennium, Anderson was already being hailed as the new role model in American cinema, all before he was thirty.
All of his films are brilliant in their own way, but it’s still worth arranging them from worst to best.
Films by Paul Thomas Anderson
Inherent Vice (2014)
Since its release, Inherent Vice has been considered the black sheep of PTA’s list of works, an accidental misfire in an otherwise impeccable track record. The dismissive indifference with which this film was received has much to do with the shadow of the two blocks of fundamental psychological research that preceded it: Oil and The Master.
“Inherent Vice” is an almost verbatim retelling of the plot of a Thomas Pynchon novel, making it the first honest film adaptation of Anderson’s career.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
The title of Anderson’s latest film hints at the intoxicating but hardly very smooth relationship between his two main characters. The attraction between a guy in puberty and a woman in her twenties usually raises some questions, but the story sees this spontaneous connection – from travel accompaniment to business partnership – as a strange thread stretched between them, born not of carnal desire (not mutual, according to at least), but emotional codependency.
Hard Eight (1996)
To reduce such an eclectic and thematically rich work like this Anderson film to one simple motive is to be completely blind. However, there is an archetype of character that appears in his work more than any other, and that is the surrogate father.
The G8 lacks a lot, but to this day the film remains a kind of microcosm of the PTA style, where all its visual features are declared.
Phantom Thread (2017)
Of all the rare qualities that Anderson possesses, the defining one for him, perhaps, is his range. While most of his contemporaries stick to their familiar tropes and familiar rhythms of storytelling, PTA has built its career on constant reinvention of itself.
Although this chamber Andersonian drama came out no less poignant and exciting than his other films, it still stands out from the rest, at least in a formal aspect.
Punch Drunk Love (2002)
The detail says something about Anderson’s merits as a screenwriter, that from an impressive list of male protagonists, which includes greedy oil magnates, morally tormented war veterans, and drug-addicted porn stars, the most integral is the plunger salesman. Adam Sandler, in what is arguably the best performance of his career, plays Barry Egan, a downtrodden introvert who hides his tormenting demons under a veneer of outward calm. The main character goes through a lot in this film, and sometimes it becomes even hard to watch his disregard for himself.
Master (2012)
If you take a closer look at the collection of emotionally broken PTA characters, you can find many similarities between them. Lonely, lost on the road, these spiritual cripples are in a state of constant mental discord. It refers to Freddie Quell, a homeless alcoholic World War II veteran who, by coincidence, meets Lancaster Dodd, a charismatic leader with a penchant for both grandiloquent speeches and empty promises. “Master” relies entirely on the fluid dynamics between these two strikingly different men.
Boogie Nights (1997)
Boogie Nights is a classic 70s porn industry rise and fall story about Eddie Adams’ rise from nightclub dishwasher to popular porn star. The film is open about its sources of inspiration, referring to Robert Altman’s kaleidoscopic narrative and Martin Scorsesse’s emotional cinematography.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Anderson’s fifth feature film follows Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis in his best role) as he travels the Californian desert with his adopted son in search of oil, money and power at the turn of the century. His transformation into a ruthless tycoon is designed to convey an age-old thought: greed and selfishness are the root of all evil. But “Oil” is a real American tragedy, an ageless classic.
Magnolia (1999)
Having got his hands on Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson decided to show absolutely everything he was capable of in his next project. And in this sense, “Magnolia” is a film in abundance. It is an operatic symphony laced with all the pomp and self-importance of a young director who can’t wait to show everyone and everyone his unique vision.