Paul Thomas Anderson

DiscipleOfPlato

DiscipleOfPlato

The Observer
Jul 29, 2003
478
7
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Miami, FL.
Is it just me, or is this guy a fucking genius? For those of you unfamiliar with his work, he's the underrated writer/director of "Hard-Eight," "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia," and most recently, (former oxymoron coming up) the brilliant Adam Sandler movie, "Punch-Drunk Love." He's so good at creating some of the most unusual, unconventional films that appeal to the average bored movie-goer looking for something new and original. In fact, the only others off the top of my head who even come close to his unique storytelling-ingenuity are Spike Jonze(Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation) and Martin Scorsese(Bringing out the Dead, The Last Temptation of Christ). Anyway, this guy's one of the reasons I love movies so much. What does everyone else think?

P.S. Some consider P.T. Anderson's films to be stupid and self-indulgent, although I obviously beg to differ...
 
Well I hate Scorsese, have only seen Magnolia by Anderson (which I hated), and Spike Jonze...what exactly did he do that was amazed you with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation?

I mean, I loved BJM and Adaptation but I think all credit should be given to Charlie Kaufman.
 
Well I hate Scorsese, have only seen Magnolia by Anderson (which I hated), and Spike Jonze...what exactly did he do that was amazed you with Being John Malkovich and Adaptation?

I mean, I loved BJM and Adaptation but I think all credit should be given to Charlie Kaufman.
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Well, I guess we just have different tastes...Both Anderson and Scorsese tend to direct movies that people either love or hate, with nothing in between. I thought Magnolia was genius but I can probably understand why you hated it...it's just not a movie for everybody, it's a very slow, very absorbing movie that demands a rather long attention span and a tolerance for scenes that drag.
Also, to say Charlie Kaufman deserves ALL credit for BJM and Adaptation is ludicrous...have you even seen these movies? Charlie Kaufman did indeed write two excellent screenplays but in the hands of a different director, I can assure you it would've been VERY different, and most likely not in a good way. A good script alone always has the potential to become a great movie, but don't forget that without a good director the results could be disastrous.
 
Have you even heard of Todd Solondz?
Also, PT Anderson isn't underrated.He gets all the acclaim he deserves.
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Why, yes, I happen to love Todd Solondz's work..."Happiness" haunted me for days, and I just recently managed to find it on DVD. "Storytelling" is rather brilliant as well.....as for "Welcome to the Dollhouse," that one's undoubtedly a classic.

Also, I guess some could argue that Anderson gets all the acclaim he deserves, knowing that he's won quite a few independent movie awards here and there, but in a more mainstream-media sense, I feel he is pretty underrated. I take it I could be asking for too much though, since he seems to be happy with his current position as a more obscure director...
 
Well that's the thing, for his position as an "independent" writer-director, he recieves alot of praise off movie critics and the such.
With that said, he's never going to be someone who does huge amounts of business at the box office because his films just don't generate that much interest among the population at large.The same could be said for the Coen Brothers and indeed, Todd Solondz.
 
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