Review of Punch-Drunk Love (2002) by Qdxhb1 — 24 Feb 2020

Paul Thomas Anderson once again proves that he is a skilled, nuanced, and unmatched force in the field of movie making with his 4th 4th feature film, Punch-Drunk Love. Written and directed by Anderson, it stars Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán and Mary Lynn Rajskub. Sandler plays an entrepreneur with severe social anxiety who is set up on a date with his sister's co-worker. The two immediately fall in love, but he is forced to defend his new love interest and himself from extortionists.

With Andersons 1999 film Magnolia, He once again delivered his signature style of slick camera work, memorable characters, and unique plot structures. But Anderson made a bit of a shift from his straight forward, grounded, dramedy, Boogie Nights. Boogie nights was a great sophomore film that made New Line Cinema a lot of money and with his Anderson's next film they were for sure going to be giving him a lot more freedom and liberty to make what he wanted. So Anderson took advantage of this and made a 3 hour drama about loneliness and reflecting on the past. It's riddled with metaphors, contemplative visual imagery and an all-star cast that all give unbelievable performances, (especially Tom Cruise). It's a brilliant film and certainly proved just how versatile of a filmmaker he could be. It's also one of P.T.A's best in my opinion. Now after a 3 year gap he has returned to the same style of filmmaking that he experimented on with Magnolia of metaphorical and abstract imagery. Alright, Imma be honest with you guys. Remember how I said I think that Magnolia is one of P.T.A's best? Well, to tell you the truth... I think Punch-Drunk Love is just a little better. I'm fully serious. This is actually better than Magnolia in my opinion. I think that Karsten Runquist, (@RunquistKarsten), said it best that this movie gives me a "high" while watching it. Paul Thomas Anderson has really hit it out of the park with this one. Adam Sandler as Berry Egan is amazing, easily one of his best performances because of the way he controls his tone in certain scenes. For example, his sudden outbursts and the way that Sandler portrays those outbursts, it's easy to tell that this man is bottling up an anger and Sandler does a great job with the character. And don't even get me started on Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance as Dean Trumbell the mattress salesman.

From the opening sequence of colors, light, and shapes you can tell that the film will be using some abstract visuals, which is why it is such a great opening tone setter. The other color sequences as well serve as great tone setters for the following scenes. For example the final color sequence is very fast and jarring which is why the following scenes are so aggressive and the story comes to an emotional climax.

The script is very unconventional and also a little ingenious because of its embrace of violence, unrealistic dialogue, (like when Berry's sister Elizabeth wants the three of them to get coffee), and its depiction of love and the sensation that comes along with it all.