Paul Thoms Anderson is arguably the only director of his generation who has not made a truly bad movie–yet.
To be sure, not all of his nine features are equally impressive from an artistic standpoint–some are naturally better, more coherent, more fully realized than others.
Please find below our evaluation of his nine features, rank ordered.
Films Ranked (Weakest to Strongest)
9. Hard Eight (debut)
8. Punch Drunk Love
7. Inherent Vice
6. Phantom Thread
5. Licorice Pizza
4. The Master
3. Magnolia
2. There Will Be Blood
1. Boogie Nights
10. Hard Eight (1996)
Anderson’s debut, an expansion of his 1993 short “Cigarettes and Coffee,” is set in Reno, and thus includes crime-movie elements, such as gambling, kidnapping and extortion.
However, it is ultimately a touching and tragic father-son tale about a shadowy older man (Philip Baker Hall) and the hapless lost cause (John C. Reilly) he takes under his wing.
Anderson demonstrated from the start that he had a singular voice, a vision and the ability to coax brilliant performances from large ensembles of unconventional actors.
9. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
This comedy proved to Adam Sandler’s fans and detractors alike that the man-child comedian had depths that were underused.
This sweet yet intense romance situates audiences in the high-stress personality of Barry Egan. Expertly deploying surreal touches, abstract kaleido-strobic interstitials and a nerve-ratcheting drums-and-strings score,
What makes such a repressed character tick — or what makes him explode into a sliding door-smashing ball of rage.
Barry tells the mattress man, “I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.”
8. Inherent Vice (2014)
Anderson’s films are both famous and infamous for their sprawling structure, At their worst they feel chaotic and over-crowded, if only because we get one-joke weirdos in place of the three-dimensional eccentrics that populate Anderson’s other group portraits — movies where the director succeeds in juggling dozens of characters without short-changing anyone. In what might have been “The Long Goodbye” by way of “The Big Lebowski,” Joaquin Phoenix’s self-medicating “Doc” pot-smokes his way through a SoCal conspiracy, ending up bleary eyed and disoriented as the audience.
7. Phantom Thread (2017)
Day-Lewis doesn’t act often–half a decade after “Lincoln” and precipitating his retirement, he reunited with Anderson for this portrait of a singularly obsessive fashion designer.
The film is as fastidious as its subject at times, resulting in a kind of elegant austerity.
Yet there’s irreverent humor that pokes wicked fun at its complex and weirdly self-destructive protagonist.
Anderson has cited haute-couture figure Cristóbal Balenciaga as inspiration, though Olivier Meyrou’s Yves Saint Laurent docu, “Celebration” might have influenced the meticulously reproduced details in this film.
Set in 1973 and named for a beloved SoCal record chain, Licorice Pizza brings writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson back to the neighborhoods where he grew up.
It’s also back to the disco-colored Wonderland where “Boogie Nights” took place and the decade when the indie director was born.
Once again, he finds colorful characters in the Los Angeles’ suburbs.
Licorice Pizza is an Anderson movie that lacks a father figure–the director’s own was an Ohio TV host who became the voice of ABC once he relocated to California.
Fathers (or parental proxies) have played important role in every one of his movies till now.
Anderson elevates prodigal sons and monster patriarchs to mythic status, whether it’s a naive porn performer like Dirk Diggler (“Boogie Nights”) or a self-made oil tycoon such as Daniel Plainview (“There Will Be Blood”). He then surrounds them with biological and/or surrogate families.
Altman’s influence can be felt in Anderson’s films, showing that no character in an ensemble is minor, no matter how brief the appearance.
Yet he has developed his own distinctive vision, and his small but rich oeuvre justifies and rewards multiple viewings.
5. The Master (2012)
For better or worse, Daniel Day-Lewis’ frothing oil-baron performance in “There Will Be Blood” loomed so large that it posed a nearly impossible act for anyone to follow, dwarfing PTA’s next project. This time, the director’s target was a real person — a cult leader inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard (the meatiest role yet for frequent Anderson collaborator Phillip Seymour Hoffman) — which called for a degree of caution, lest he rankle the famously litigious “religion.” Trouble is, without a fair amount of outside reading and research, audiences were hard-pressed to make much of this rowdy critique, focusing instead on Joaquin Phoenix’s character, the kind of broken individual on whom false prophets prey.
4. Licorice Pizza (2021)
A free-wheeling coming-of-age comedy, Licorice Pizza is a companion piece ofLucas’ 1973 “American Graffiti” and Linklater 1993 Dazed and Confused.”
Yet, the gloriously retro “Licorice Pizza” proves to be one of the director’s most heartfelt movies yet. Shot during the pandemic, this affectionate time capsule allows the director to carry on the creative partnership with the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman by writing a role for his son Cooper, who plays an impossibly self-confident SoCal teenager intent on wooing a woman roughly a decade his senior (Alana Heim). Coming on the heels of Bradley Cooper’s gonzo leisure-suit cameo, the delivery-truck scene is hall-of-fame material.
4. Magnolia (1999)
It never rains in Southern California, or so the old song goes, though a weather forecast at the outset of PTA’s magnum opus gives it a 75% chance.
Chance is the operative word in this emotional journeys of reckonings and reconciliations, which hinges on a central paradox en route to its torrential climax: Anderson muses about the freak factors (incidents and accidents) that govern our fates.
Over the course of three-plus hours, he orchestrates this ensemble piece as a series of dramatic waves, set in motion by Jon Brion’s carnival-ride score and tsoul-shredding voice of Aimee Mann.
Nine Mann songs, nine major characters, are interwoven with a staggering degree of complexity.
Inspired by Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, Magnolia unfurls as if a biblical judgment day were looming and these people — parents and their damaged kids, mostly — had only 24 hours to sort out regrets and unfinished business.
As a Tony Robbins-like motivational speaker, Tom Cruise is toxic masculinity personified (his monologue begins with “Respect the Cock!”).
Julianne Moore, as his father’s trophy wife, reminds viewers that we can never really know someone.
2. Boogie Nights (1997)
In this amicable depiction of the world of porn, everyone’s a star. Anderson’s slick homage to the adult film industry of the 1970s turns toxic with the introduction of drugs and home video in the 1980s.
Set in the San Fernando Valley, the film follows the same arc as countless “A Star Is Born” narratives before, but brings such heart that the usual showbiz cynicism takes a back seat to genuine interpersonal dynamics.
Mark Wahlberg’s gifted-if-not-especially-talented Dirk Diggler creates a kind of chosen family for himself, replacing the biological one at home (with an irritating mother).
1. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Commerce and Religion (Christianity) go head-to-head in Anderson’s epic American showdown.
The tale is set in the early 20th century, when opportunists like Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) could strike it rich overnight by digging for silver — or black gold.
The movie pits the seasoned capitalist against a self-righteous (if hypocritical) country preacher (Paul Dano) over a lucrative claim.
This feature is one for the ages, like watching Elmer Gantry throw down with an Ayn Rand titan.
It’s not a fair fight, but it sets up the film’s intensely cathartic “I drink your milkshake” finale.
