Tag Archives: ptadeepdive

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Song of the Day #4,871: “Violin Concerto in D Major’ – Johannes Brahms

In the words of Daniel Plainview in the final scene of There Will Be Blood… I’m finished!

I very much enjoyed revisiting Paul Thomas Anderson’s eight films, some of which I hadn’t seen in many years. Revisiting the work of great auteurs always reveals additional layers, new things to appreciate.

Even so, my overall rankings didn’t shift much. Only three movies changed positions, two going up and one going down. Magnolia suffered the biggest drop, while Phantom Thread made the biggest jump. It’s all just a matter of degree, though. I heartily recommend every one of these films.

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Song of the Day #4,870: ‘My Foolish Heart’ – Oscar Peterson

Paul Thomas Anderson’s most recent film, at the time of this writing, is the one — on its face — least like the others. 2017’s Phantom Thread is the first Anderson film not set in the United States; in fact, it’s the first not set in or just outside of California.

Set in London in 1954, a few years after The Master but on the other side of the globe, the film follows fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day Lewis) and the many women in his orbit. Woodcock is a respected artist but an insufferable, fussy prig. He needs everything just so and erupts like a toddler when the world doesn’t cooperate. He is enabled by his stern sister, Cyril (Lesley Manville), who runs the House of Woodcock. Like Peggy in The Master, she is the real center of power, no matter what Reynolds imagines.

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Song of the Day #4,869: ‘Journey Through the Past’ – Neil Young

Paul Thomas Anderson’s eighth film, 2014’s Inherent Vice, was his first true adaptation. While There Will Be Blood was very loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil, this film is a very faithful telling of Thomas Pynchon’s novel. Inherent Vice is actually the first film ever made from one of Pynchon’s notoriously hard-to-crack books.

The modern film noir, set in 1970 and soaked in pot and paranoia, follows private detective Larry “Doc” Sportello through a byzantine plot involving kidnapping, murder, gentrification, police informants, and an international heroine syndicate. It’s also a love story.

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Song of the Day #4,868: ‘No Other Love’ – Jo Stafford

Continuing my look at the filmography of Paul Thomas Anderson…

Anderson took five years to follow up his critically-lauded There Will Be Blood, returning in 2012 with the post-World War II drama The Master. Discussed in the run-up to its release as a “Scientology movie,” the film does take many cues from the life of L. Ron Hubbard in telling a story about Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), founder of a movement called The Cause.

But Dodd is a supporting player here, and the movie isn’t particularly interested in the origins of The Cause. The cult serves as the backdrop for Anderson’s real interest: the relationship between Dodd and Freddie Quell, a World War II vet who stumbles into his life.

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Song of the Day #4,865: ‘Future Markets’ – Jonny Greenwood

If one film in Paul Thomas Anderson’s body of work will go down in history as an undisputed masterpiece, it is 2007’s There Will Be Blood. The movie showed up on more decade-end “best of the 00s” list than any other title, cementing its legacy just a few years after its release. Ten years later, its reputation has only grown.

This is Anderson’s first adaptation (the film is loosely based on Upton Sinclair’s 1926 novel Oil!) and his first film to not tap into his typical stable of actors. There’s no John C. Reilly or Philip Baker Hall. No Philip Seymour Hoffman or Luis Guzman. Instead, he joined forces with the legendary Daniel Day Lewis and 23-year-old Paul Dano to craft a story about two men battling for the soul of America in the 1900s.

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