Review: 'The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha' (Directors' Cuts series)

Paul Thomas Anderson's early career with such a clear and explosive style that you'd think he'd already been making films for decades. His debut, Hard Eight (aka: Sydney), was modest, but he went right from that to a sprawling epic (Boogie Nights) and an even more sprawling epic that was also ferociously outlandish and borderline supernatural (Magnolia). Everything about his filmmaking was so specific and consistent--from his rawly emotional and often juvenile dialogue to his actors' operatic performances to the details of his LA settings to his thrilling tonal shifts to his willingness to dive headlong into wild ideas--that Paul Thomas Anderson didn't seem as if he ever needed to stray from his wholly individual path.

Review: 'Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks'

No new filmmaker of the late twentieth-century reached for that brass ring like Paul Thomas Anderson. While most seemed content to ape Tarantino, Anderson made clear his aspirations to join the looming likes of Kubrick, Altman, and Malick: filmmakers of preternatural vision and ambition. Although Anderson never made any bones about his film-geek touchstones (the most reductive of critics labeled Boogie Nights his “Scorsese,” Magnolia his “Altman,” There Will Be Blood his “Kubrick,” and so on), Anderson’s films were still preciously personal and wholly original in their own rights. Each new release was an event, especially as his schedule slowed to a crawl in the twenty-first century.

366 Days at the Drive-In: Day 346

The Date: September 10

The Movie: Magnolia (1999)

What Is It?: Paul Thomas Anderson populates his tale of bad families, bad TV, and bizarre phenomena with an Altman-esque collection of deeply troubled characters right on the cusp of tumbling into the abyss, including dying TV exec Jason Robards, his pill-popping trophy wife Julianne Moore, game show host Phillip Baker Hall, his coke-head daughter Melora Walters, and misogynistic, hyperactive dating-seminar dickhead Tom Cruise. The way Anderson ties all of his characters together is masterful, as is the way he is able to sustain an unbelievably taut tension that does not alleviate for the entire first hour. This is an incredibly daring film that takes great chances, and more often than not, succeeds. Whether or not you like Magnolia, there’s no way you’ll be able to anticipate its flights of madness. Those who are able to give in to it all will find this to be one of the most rewarding movies they’ll ever see.

Why Today?: On this day in 1931, Philip Baker Hall is born .