Phantom Thread (2017)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
DOP: Paul Thomas Anderson?
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville

Set in 1950s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes her muse and lover. 

After his latest two outings, The Master and Inherent Vice, which were not that straight forward narrative wise this one from Paul Thomas Anderson is much more of a simpler one. Inherent Vice with a drugged up private investigator as protagonist was an attempt to get us the audience to feel the same amount of confusion as he must have been feeling. It is a film that I enjoyed, but like most of his recent films, it demands multiple viewings which I haven't quite managed yet. Daniel Day-Lewis, in what he declared to be his final role, is the perfectionist dressmaker who likes quiet and fulsome breakfasts which can make or break his day. He lives with his work partner and sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) and we see in the initial sequence, her advising him to dump his muse after a tension filled breakfast. He goes to the country for a break and meets Alma (Vicky Krieps), who becomes his new muse and lover. What we see over the course of the film is whether or not Alma can break the cycle. She has her own ways and the ending of the film can make or break it for most of the audience. It worked for me and reminded me of 'Blood Simple' in an odd sort of a way. It certainly left me feeling high.

One gripe I have with the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino is that they have resorted to the safety of period with their latest films. This is a film which could have been very well set in the contemporary times, even with the same profession of fashion at its center. It could have even more of an impact. If you also look at Daniel Day-Lewis' filmography in terms of films that he is famous for, most have been set in period as well. It is just an easy way out in my opinion. Despite these misgivings in a general sense, Phantom Thread is a pretty great watch. There is no credited DOP for the film as the usual ones who work with PTA were busy with other projects and he himself is said to have managed the camera persons.

Rating: 4.25/5

Junun (2015)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Features: Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur, Rajasthan Express

Its a 54 minute documentary, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, which documents the making of an album of the same name in Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, by the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, English composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, Indian ensemble Rajasthan Express, and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.

Jonny Greenwood's collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson started with 'There Will Be Blood' and it continued with him composing soundtrack for the next two PT Anderson films, The Master and Inherent Vice. This time the relation is other way round with Anderson documenting a music project involving Jonny Greenwood. We know the Beatles coming to India story and their use of Sitar in 'Norwegian Wood'. But it was more famous for them buying into the spiritual bullshit. Thankfully, there is not any of that in Junun and the collaboration is strictly musical. It is not a case of Radiohead music getting a tinge of Indian and Israeli flavors as level of involvement is equal across the board and the documentary conveys that with all the artists sitting in a circle and recording. I am a bit musically challenged and I really don't differentiate the sounds coming from different instruments when I hear music. Since this video captures each and every little instrument that they are using when its actually playing, you really can appreciate the complexity in composing involving such different musical instruments into a whole. 

Anderson also uses drones to get some breathtaking aerial footage of touristy parts in and around the fort. Also you get some idiosyncratic things that you will get if you are depending on Indian state electricity boards for power to record music out from a studio environment. The contortions that Indian musicians make is also fascinating to watch as they are not much bothered about their appearance while playing. It is a delightful watch and I managed to deduce that some of the lyrics were in Hebrew even though I didn't know that an Israeli musician was involved with the project prior to watching this film. That is some achievement from my part since I haven't seen many Israeli films to familiarize myself with the way that language sounds and was going purely by eliminating other languages and partly going by the way Shye Ben Tzur looks. He has been involved with Indian music for a long time and composes Qawwalis (a form of ecstatic Muslim devotional music), instrumental and devotional music in Hebrew, Hindi and Urdu. He has also started composing Sufi Qawwali music in Hebrew as well. The album that they made, 'Junun', has not yet been released and the only preview that you can get is out of the footage from this documentary film. It is a very good watch on the whole.

Rating: 3.5/5  

Inherent Vice (2014)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writers:  Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon (Novel)
Cast:       Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston

In 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private detective Larry 'Doc' Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend. 

The trailer for Inherent Vice, which Paul Thomas Anderson himself cut, gave the impression that it will be a very similar to Coens' 'Big Lebowski' in its tone. The last two films of the director was quite different when compared with his works pre-There Will Be Blood and the trailer made it look like that it will be more like his earlier works. Nice work Anderson, because you would've fooled everyone who went by trailer. Luckily for me, I was aware of trailer being misleading and didn't negatively affect my viewing of the film. That said there is some similarity with 'Big Lebowski' in the sense is that both of them is about a slacker kind of character who is caught up in an investigation and for both the films the plot is not that important. The latter could be one reason for people not to like 'Big Lebowski' when they watch it first time round because many do have a habit of getting hung up on plot even when the film is not really about that. Anderson takes it one step further by making it almost impossible to make any sense of it. I really don't have any clue about major portions of the film as he introduces newer and newer characters with vague connections to the central investigation and by the end of it you are just dazed and confused. I guess Anderson manages to convey how a stoner is feeling about things but I need some of my stoner friends to confirm the same for me. 

Another film that is all about giving the stoner vibe for the audience is Terry Gilliam's 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. Inherent Vice takes a very different approach to it but Benicio Del Toro is common in both films playing the role of lawyer friend to the protagonist. The other main character in  the film is Doc's nemesis cop 'Big Foot' (Josh Brolin) who has a propensity to suck some inappropriate looking things (chocobars, black banana etc, you get the idea) throughout the film. Both Phoenix and Brolin are super great in the film playing very different characters to their normal fare. The way Joaquin Phoenix goes about in public, a common criticism that he gets when it comes to his films like 'The Master' and 'The Immigrant' is that he is just playing his usual self. This film will shut up those people since you don't see Phoenix at all in the role. Robert Downey Jr. was initially associated with the project but I am glad it finally went to Phoenix since the same criticism would have come with the former. Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood is again involved with the soundtrack which starts on the best footing with Can's 'Vitamin C' used during the opening credits. 

Overall it is a great watch and don't ask me anything about the plot. Like the last two Anderson films, this one also require multiple viewing but I am not sure whether my liking for it will depreciate, appreciate or stay the same with it. Forgot to mention that it is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's, what was regarded as an un-filmable, novel with the same name. The title Inherent Vice, as explained somewhere in the film, is a terminology used in marine insurance to refer to substances that deteriorate because of the fundamental instability of the components as opposed to external forces.

Rating: 4.5/5

                                                                  

The Master (2012)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer:    Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast:       Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern

A naval veteran Freddie (Phoenix) arrives home from the second world war unsettled and uncertain of his future-until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader, Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman). Dodd is attracted to Freddie initially by the drink that he gives him which is made out of several industrial/household chemicals like Paint thinner. For Freddie it is a case of someone who is actively being interested in him and also it might be a case of him liking an authoritative figure around him. 

I had seen it when it got released and found it to be good but requiring multiple viewing to appreciate it more. It took me three viewings to fully appreciate P T Anderson's previous one, 'There Will Be Blood'. I finally got round to watching The Master again after listening to Anderson's interview with Marc Maron in the WTF podcast. When the film got released, most of the publicity it got was because of Lancaster Dodd's character being based on the Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. I am not that interested in that particular comparison mainly because we in India are so familiar with all these God Men/Women like figures and 'Art of Living' fraudsters. So it was better for me to view Dodd as such a generic sort of character and the conflicts that he goes through keeping with his lies is an interesting angle. I do think most of these people are just living their lies rather than actually believing in the kind of shit that they come out with.

Both Dodd and Freddie need each other. Dodd is surrounded by his family members and the cult. Some of the family members like his much younger wife, daughter and son-in-law are very much into the cult either being fully bought into it or as a matter of convenience. His son is of the view that Dodd is just making up shit as he go along and Freddie is also under that impression even though he want it to be the other way. When Dodd's wife warns him of Freddie being a negative influence and not really into the cult, he makes him go through the ridiculous programming process and we see how conflicted Freddie is when doing it. There could also be a homo-erotic angle to their relationship but sometimes they come across as a father-son combo or just friends. Freddie needs him but can't put up with all the other bullshit that comes with Dodd. Dodd needs Freddie to escape from the cult he is surrounded with, at least fleetingly.

Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead continues his collaborative partnership with P T Anderson which started with 'There Will Be Blood'. It is a 'tour de force' acting performance with all three of them earning academy award nominations. Film was shot in 70 mm which has become a sort of fad with Tarantino and Christopher Nolan also joining the bandwagon. They have at least saved Kodak with some of the studios guaranteeing a quota of films to be filmed in the traditional way. To sum up, I still find the film to be something that I admire rather than really love. That was the case with 'There Will Be Blood' also before the third viewing changed it to something that I love. To end it on a tragic note, Philip Seymour Hoffman had his first drink in 23 years at the wrap party of the film, leading to a relapse of his alcoholism.

Rating: 4.5/5 

                                                                      

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writers:  Paul Thomas Anderson, Upton Sinclair
Cast:       Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds

A story of family, greed, religion, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.

This was my third time watch of Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece which was a big change for him in terms of themes and style handled when compared to previous films in his filmography. This time around I enjoyed it the most maybe because I identified with the main character Daniel Plainview more and more. He is greedy, pragmatic, want to be liked by those who are close to him and doesn't suffer fools lightly. The following conversation with the guy who turns up as his brother kind of sums up the character:

Plainview: Are you an angry man, Henry?

Henry Brands: About what?

Plainview: Are you envious? Do you get envious?

Henry Brands: I don't think so. No.

Plainview: I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.

Henry Brands: That part of me is gone... working and not succeeding- all my failures has left me... I just don't... care.

Plainview: Well, if it's in me, it's in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.

Henry Brands: What will you do about your boy?

Plainview: I don't know. Maybe it will change. Does your sound come back to you? I don't know. Maybe no one knows that. A doctor might not know that.

Henry Brands: Where is his mother?

Plainview: I don't want to talk about those things. I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry... to have you here gives me a second breath. I can't keep doing this on my own with these... people.

His relationship with Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) starts off with the wrong note as he brings up the subject of his church when Daniel is trying to buy their land. There is not much difference between the characters except for the hypocrisy which is common among religious folks. What Daniel does in the film for most part is not really that bad and he is just a pragmatic businessman. He does a lot of good for the community but we see a sort of envy when he doesn't get the recognition for it as he sees people flocking to Eli Sunday's church. He cares a lot for his 'son' and is heartbroken when he decides to part his ways with his father and reacts in a bitter manner. In the last scene he is infuriated when Eli has the audacity to ask him for help and describes them as friends from long back which I think suggests that he also identifies himself with Daniel's character. The legendary tirade that follows leads the film to the inevitable conclusion that is suggested by the title: 'There Will Be Blood':

Plainview: You're not the chosen brother, Eli. It was Paul who was chosen. You see, he found me and told me about your land. You're just a fool.

Eli Sunday: Why are you talking about Paul? Don't say this to me.

Plainview: I did what your brother couldn't. I broke you and I beat you. It was Paul who told me about you. He's the prophet. He's the smart one. He knew what was there and he found me to take it out of the ground, and you know what the funny thing is? Listen... listen... listen... I paid him ten thousand dollars, cash in hand, just like that. He has his own company now. A prosperous little business. Three wells producing. Five thousand dollars a week.

[Eli cries]

Plainview: Stop crying, you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense. You're just the afterbirth, Eli.

Eli Sunday: No...

Plainview: You slithered out of your mother's filth.

Eli Sunday: No.

Plainview: They should have put you in a glass jar on a mantlepiece. Where were you when Paul was suckling at your mother's teat? Where were you? Who was nursing you, poor Eli- one of Bandy's sows? That land has been had. Nothing you can do about it. It's gone. It's had. You lose.

Eli Sunday: If you would just take this lease, Daniel...

Plainview: Drainage! Drainage, Eli, you boy. Drained dry. I'm so sorry. Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!

[sucking sound]

Plainview: I drink it up!

Eli Sunday: Don't bully me, Daniel!

[Daniel roars and throws Eli across the room]

Plainview: Did you think your song and dance and your superstition would help you, Eli? I am the Third Revelation! I am who the Lord has chosen!

Rating: 5/5

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer:   Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast:      Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman
A psychologically troubled novelty supplier is nudged into a romance with an English woman, all the while being extorted by a phone-sex line run by a crooked mattress salesman, and purchasing stunning amounts of pudding.

After Magnolia which ran for more than 3 hours Paul T Anderson told he will be making an Adam Sandler 90 minute film and everyone thought he was joking. But like all good directors, he extracts an impressive performance from an actor who is not re-known for his acting ability. It is a shame that Sandler didn't again try his hands on films like this and went back to making his shitty comedy films. He also turned down Tarantino's 'Inglourious Basterds' to make one of his other comedy trash. PDL will be his best comedy film and it is not just a comedy film.

This was my second viewing of PDL and found it even more enjoyable. Stunning cinematography and soundtrack and excellent performances from the cast. The encounter between Sandler and Hoffman at the end is a stand out scene. That's that.

Rating: 5/5

Magnolia (1999)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer:    Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast:      Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy Blackman, Melora Walters, John C.Reilly, William H.Macy
Its a day in the life of 9 interrelated characters who have some connection between them in terms of their plight.

I thought the film was good but not  that great the first time round. On the second watch I feel its a great film and among the best from Paul Thomas Anderson along with Boogie Nights and There will be blood. Tom Cruise's role in this is the best of his career in my opinion along with the role he did in 'Collateral'.

Rating: 4.5/5