PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)

Reviewed: October 4th, 2002 - October 9th, 2002

Paul Thomas Anderson is my favorite filmmaker. Novelty is not quality. First is not always best. PTA -- who combines the best of Scorsese and Altman into a single optimized package -- is something none of his biggest influences are (influences who also strongly include Jonathan Demme): a writer. Scorsese and Altman are only as good as their material. PTA is his material, lives his material. He always writes alone, and from scratch. Yeah, he has the same ensemble mastery as Altman. Yeah, he can whip-pan and track with the best of Scorsese (who, by the way, has taken as many shots from Truffaut, Ophuls and Welles as PTA has taken from him; I don't think of it as heisting, rather riffing). But PTA is an original fusion. Unashamedly, sometimes devastatingly emotional, PTA's films are more humanistic and less cynical than Altman and Scorsese in all the best possible senses. We should all be so lucky as to have one filmmaker working in our lifetime whose sensibilities align so precisely with our own. For me, that's PTA.

A warning__________

The press seem intent on billing Punch-Drunk Love as a romantic comedy. This nomenclature is inaccurate. Don't go in expecting a comedy. Punch-Drunk Love is a romance, yes -- one of the greatest screen romances of all time -- but it's not a romantic comedy by the established conventions of the genre. Yes, there are some big laughs, but I don't even think Punch-Drunk Love is as funny as Boogie Nights (nor do I think is it necessarily supposed to be). The tone is a pendulum: light and dark, black and white, sweet and sour. The press is just characterizing Punch-Drunk Love as a romantic comedy because they feel compelled to refer to it as something, but uch attribution provides the wrong impression. Punch-Drunk Love is so unique it's impossible to nail down with a single phrase.

A review in three sentences__________

At of the time of this writing, Punch-Drunk Love is -- hands down -- the best film of 2002. I saw the movie a few days ago and its staggering imagery, lush walls of sound, needlepoint writing and fantastic performances continue to swirl around in my brain every few hours. Paul Thomas Anderson has crafted a totally individualistic, uplifting, wondrous experience.

About that "staggering imagery"__________

Photographed by Robert Elswit (who has lensed all four of PTA's movies), Punch-Drunk Love's visuals rise above some of the other recent lighting master classes I've seen (e.g. Far From Heaven, Red Dragon and The Ring) because the film manages to bring striking, luscious, heavily saturated beauty to banal locations that are, typically, very difficult to make pretty. Hospitals, warehouses, supermarkets (in all their normally ugly florescent hell), bland apartments, bland apartment building hallways, a morning in the San Fernando Valley, are all -- with just a few deftly surreal strokes -- brought to vibrant Technicolor-ed life. (Numerous, sometimes blatant indications tip the viewer off to PTA's old-school Technicolor influence, i.e. the poster, the plasma, Sandler's blue suit; there are sequences which, quite literally, explode with color.) Plus Elswit and PTA make breathtaking use of Hawaii location shooting, as well as frequent, always superb use of silhouettes (including one of the most romantic kisses ever filmed which is unfortunately spoiled by Punch-Drunk Love's poster). As for PTA's famous, bravura camera moves,Punch-Drunk Love is a throwback to PTA's restrained, Hard Eight days. Trading in his whip-pans and super quick push/zoom-ins for lots of steadicam work (and thus keeping his preference for long tracking shots), the entire movie has a wonderfully elegiac, floating vibe; there is such fluency and rhythm here.

About those "lush walls of sound"__________

Magnolia features up to forty-five consecutive minutes of score (by the amazing Jon Brion). During some Magnolia sequences PTA layers song on top of the score, both coexisting, fighting for attention and thereby creating a Revolution #9ish bombastacism. PTA has once again collaborated with producer/songwriter/singer/composer/renaissance man Brion, who has endowed Punch-Drunk Love with so much oppressive, percussive orchestration it sometimes obscures the dialogue. But that's because PTA is after something grander here: Brion's work (and his percussive stuff is just the tip of an ultra-varied, musical iceberg he's created) is such an integral part of Punch-Drunk Love, the film can be watched as a musical w/o song and dance numbers. In their place PTA has invested his film with a Peter and the Wolfish/stage musical device: certain Brion pieces cue specific characters (the Congo-like drums build... here comes Mary Lynn Rajskub as one of seven, harsh, tormenting sisters!). In interviews PTA has discussed how he played portions of Brion's score for Sandler and the other Punch-Drunk Love star, Emily Watson, before they even began shooting. His intent was a synching of wavelengths, a way to connect everyone to Punch-Drunk Love's soon-to-be soul. (Not that Brion's score is not original, mind you. It was indeed conceived specifically for the film. But it was conceived starting as soon as PTA finished the script, or I would surmise, as early as during his initial screenwriting process.) Meanwhile, like PTA's visual retrograding to Hard Eight, his shockingly sparse use of song/domination of score in Punch-Drunk Love (only three songs, whereas Magnolia had a full-length album worth and Boogie Nights two albums full) is an aural, first-film reminiscence.

About that "needlepoint writing"__________

Everyone can rest assured PTA's dazzling text is alive and kicking in Punch-Drunk Love. I'd describe his dialogue as everyday, organic, genuine talk meets Mametian height. I could already off-the-top-of-my-head quote a few magnificent lines to prove my point, but I refuse to spoil them. For those of you who've seen the film, right now I'm thinking of Sandler and Watson's "dangerous" talk in [word omitted to protect the virginal] or Sandler and Philip Seymour Hoffman's (he plays the heavy, but it's not much more than a cameo; he's, need I even say, motherfucking fucking God damn funny) final confrontation.

About those "fantastic performances"__________

Adam Sandler is not merely fine or adequate or better than ever. He is marvelous and heartbreaking. Much has been written about how Sandler essentially plays the same role in Punch-Drunk Love he's played in all his other films: a generally sweet guy who can get really angry, really easily. And boiled down to an essence, that's true, he is playing that same guy. But just as a movie is not what it's about, but how it's about it, ditto characterization and acting. PTA has gone to the root of Sandler's embedded anger, traced the fury, provided reasons and texture and background and context, and the result is a realism and verite never present in any of Sandler's past credits. I know Barry Egan, Sandler's character. There's some Barry Egan in me. He is sometimes lonely. He's often sad. He's gentle and shy and hardworking and he deserves better. PTA charts his path to love and Punch-Drunk Love serves as a character study of Barry as much as anything else.

There is a scene in a phone booth in Hawaii that stands among the best single scenes PTA has ever produced. This scene's success is entirely founded on Sandler's performance. Sandler makes a critical movement (I don't mean physical) and his overflow leads to as perfect and affecting a moment of screen acting as any I've seen.

Emily Watson's role is considerably smaller than Sandler's, but she's pristine: heavenly and sharp, mysterious and soft.

So Now Then__________

In Punch-Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson finds drama in the smallest, most human of moments. (There is an incredible sequence where Sandler has to simaltaneously deal with one of his sisters, Watson, work, and unsolicited phone calls that will not knock you on your ass. PTA's comedy is outlandish and beautiful. This is a masterpiece.

Return home.