Film: The strange worlds of Paul Thomas Anderson.

I finally saw Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, and I have to admit it was a chore to get through.   I think it is basically an incomprehensible mess, but as the case with everyone of his films there is something worthwhile about it.  While I can declare this my least favorite of his films, I have heard that it is a good adaptation of the book Inherent Vice, and if that is the case that story was pretty unfilmable.  So good on him!  There are also scene stealing  moments from Hong Chau and especially Josh Brolin.  The screenplay has some humorous moments, but it basically links a lot of stories and characters together without much development.  Maybe it is supposed to represent the drug haze that everyone in the films seems to be in.   I give it 5 out of 10.

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time even with this slight disappointment.  Here are my rankings of his work.  It should be noted that only the bottom 2 scored less than an 8 out of 10 from me.

7. Inherent Vice
6.  Punch-Drunk Love- an interesting detour for Adam Sandler. If only he had continued in that direction.
5.    Hard Eight- It's Anderson's debut.  Honestly until I reviewed the synopsis I kind of forgot I had seen it.  While it is maybe forgettable long term, I enjoyed it in the moment.
4.  Magnolia- the frogs almost did it in for me, but fortunately there is a lot of amazing acting in this film including turns from Julianne Moore, Jason Robards, and even Tom Cruise
3. The Master- One of Joaquin Phoenix's best performances and one of many great Philip Seymour Hoffman performances (which often came from PT Anderson movies).
2.  There Will Be Blood- this is most likely the film that will stand the test of time and has the best chance of becoming a film classic.  Daniel Day Lewis gives an iconic performance

But my favorite is

1. Boogie Nights-  the first time I saw this I wasn't a fan and I especially hated the Sister Christian scene, but something made me revisit it and apparently I just needed to mature a bit.  Boogie Nights is just as much of a classic film as There Will be Blood, but it's story about the world of porn is slightly less palatable.  The casting is spot on. Mark Wahlberg, Burt Reynolds and yes Heather Graham gives career best performances here.  This is where I discovered Don Cheadle, and Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour Hoffman give two of the most complicated and beautiful performances I have seen on film.