Review of Hard Eight (1997) by Kevin J — 24 Mar 2014

I haven't seen many neo-noir films in my life, but since Chinatown is one of my all time favourite films and Paul Thomas Anderson is an incredible film director, his feature length debut with Hard Eight is a film that is not one I can miss for the world.

Hard Eight really has the neo-noir style gripped in Paul Thomas Anderson's hand, and in a soft way he lets it out in Hard Eight. While it is clear that Hard Eight faces the limitations of a very small budget, riding the exceptional screenwriting skill that Paul Thomas Anderson later got nominated for several Academy Awards for, Hard Eight is an intelligent film. The script feels really natural as it comes from the mouths of the viewers, and so it allows a lot of realism to gradually implement itself in the viewer's mind. It also supplies a lot of strong story structure and well written lines for the actors to work with. It builds up from its complicated characters and allows things to develop from there, and as it unfolds into a complicated neo-noir crime drama it becomes fascinating.

The crime drama in Hard Eight doesn't hit viewers across the face with a shocking impact, it naturally lets things unfold while audiences see it happen and are likely to feel stoic and intrigued. Hard Eight therefore gets the viewers into the mind of its main character Sydney. As the events become more and more powerful, audiences will become more and more surprised by things. Surprisingly enough it is very easy to empathise with the experiences of Sydney, thanks to many things such as the writing and the character development. But what is really interesting is that Hard Eight is not boring. The film is slow and long, but the experience rarely ever made me feel that because it is one of the few films that takes a very theoretical look at a lot of crime drama from a third person perspective most of the time, yet it is intelligent, original and entertaining above all. Hard Eight is a simple neo noir crime film, but it is very thrilling and entertaining, and it's quite an accomplishment for Paul Thomas Anderson to do so much on a low budget, even though it is to be expected from the filmmaker deemed a wunderkind.

And visually, Hard Eight follows a lot of classical noir techniques. The cinematography has a lot of long shots which require minimal editing and they move very smoothly. They also zoom in on the actors' faces slowly as they go on prolonged periods of talking, and when they have to pan along as part of the movement they do it very gently smoothly. The camera work in Hard Eight is excellent and one of the key reasons that it can be considered a neo-noir, and it reveals Paul Thomas Anderson's eye for visual elements on the surface of an example of his mind of intelligent writing, so Hard Eight shows off everything that Paul Thomas Anderson is good for on a small budget and within various limitations.

I was surprised just how much I ended up enjoying Hard Eight because it is hard to find a good neo-noir film these days, but Paul Thomas Anderson makes it no challenge to resurrect the genre and make his own great addition to it and an excellent feature length debut as a screenwriter and director. When you contrast it to his later work where he has been given significantly larger budgets to fund his ambitious larger scale projects, Hard Eight goes back to just what he is all about at heart as the writer of excellent dialogue and the director who executes his film so well and brings out the true best in his actors. And in his first collaboration with Phillip Baker Hall, he does just that.

Phillip Baker Hall's performance is excellent in Hard Eight. As he proved in Boogie Nights and Magnolia, he works his best when teamed up with director Paul Thomas Anderson. Through his immense knowledge as an actor, Phillip Baker Hall gives an unforgettable performance as the lead actor in Hard Eight. Phillip Baker Hall characterises Sydney Brown as a neo-noir figure through elements of sophistication, wit and well timed line delivery. He maintains the appropriate stoicism for the character at all times and deals with the dramatic dynamics as such. He portrays his character as a man with a lot of wisdom which he proves as he engages with the other actors, particularly with John C. Reilly and Samuel L. Jackson, and so in the end it proves to be quite possibly Phillip Baker Hall's most brilliant performance to date. He is the source of the true noir heart in the story through his performance, and it is incredibly effective.

John C. Reilly's performance comes from early on in his career before he experienced a massive boost in momentum, and without problem he steps into the role and proves what he is all about. He puts the sense of anxiety and awkwardness that his character faces into his role without problem. And his line delivery fuses with his physicality without any issue, so he proves just how naturally his charisma comes to him.

Samuel L. Jackson's supporting performance is a fiercely powerful one because it combines his natural ability to turn aggressive in a second with his strength at playing a sophisticated figure at the same time. Like his role in Pulp Fiction, he is an aggressive at the right time but has no issue keeping his cool most of the time to keep a façade up. The scenes where he engages with Phillip Baker Hall are excellent, and they really show the endeavour of his acting skill without any problem.

Gwyneth Paltrow's small role also displays how she can deal with heavy drama nicely by getting herself into the headspace of her character easily and dealing her lines very well.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman's cameo was also a good one as it showed off his acting talents within a very brief timeframe which director Paul Thomas Anderson would later put to use in many of his films.

So Hard Eight is a simple film on behalf of Paul Thomas Anderson with a low budget, but without suffering under its limitations its proves to be a brilliantly written and entertaining thought provoking neo-noir crime drama which boasts an exceptional style and the greatest performance of Phillip Baker Hall's career in the lead role.