www.bbc.co.uk/b... I recently screened my favourite Paul Thomas Anderson film - Punch-Drunk Love. I think the movie is proof that Adam Sandler is capable of brilliance...
[OFF-TOPIC REPLY:] That's exactly how I felt about #TheDevilsDouble which was on BBC One recently. If I remember rightly from his review Mark didn't & I didn't _enjoy_ it at all, but #DominicCooper well & truly knocked it out of the park. I was completely engrossed in his performance(s) & didn't want to stop watching even though what was happening in the film was so horrible.
One of the best Kermode Uncuts ever! Great one! I love the film myself and it was fun to see you introduce it and trying as hard as you could to sell it. Love the passion you display in the interviews after also. Great watch!
Really, really good, wonderful film, but Paul Thomas Anderson's best film probably still is There will be blood. It's almost certainly Sandler's best film, though.
I agree, There will be blood is PTA's best work to date, and for a 35 mm screening it would've been better than Drunk Punch Love (which I also love.) However my favorite PTA movie is Magnolia
I know this is an old comment but I thought I would just say that after watching The Master a couple of times more, I have been unable to get it out of my mind for months. TWBB is a damn near perfect film but The Master just has something truly special about it.
I adore this film. Barry is wonderful. The sisters are horrid. Mattress Man is just too funny. I really wish Sandler had continued in this vein of acting. If it's not PTA's best film, it's certainly Sandler's.
I put off watching Punch-Drunk Love until 2020 because it never sounded all that appealing... I could not have been more wrong. It now challenges There Will Be Blood as my favorite PTA film.
I have gone down much the same path as you. I had never seen a PTA movie until TWBB, but I instantly fell in love with it. I've seen that one probably 40 times in the past three-four months. I bought PDL just a week and a half ago, and I've already watched it eight times. I saw Magnolia recently, and that movie was good, but was too heavy handed with showing me what the movie is all about. I like it well enough, but I have trouble enjoying a movie that shows the plights of an ensemble of characters rather than one or two. It also *feels* twice as long as TWBB, which is a feat...
Adam sandler is my favourite actor and will probably always be, because he got me into cinema and i'm so glad he proves people wrong that shit on him , as he's a wonderfully talented actor that can do great work such as this and more recently uncut gems. But i also find his goofy comedies hilarious, so an actor that can be funny but also take on serious roles just goes to show that he is an amazing actor that doesn't get enough credit
A OK Maybe because I am an American I love him in the Waterboy and the Wedding Singer, probably his best films beside Punch Drunk Love. My only regret with PDL is that I wish it was more well received because if it was then I seriously think that he could've gone done the Robin Williams route and won an Oscar by now, unfortunately....
A friend from Scotland (who died a couple of years ago) recommended him to me and I have been following Kermode almost consistently for some years now.
Yeah I have to agree, Punch Drunk Love is one of my favourites, and still I'm baffled as to why he doesn't take more roles like Barry Egan instead of the tripe he churns out
Just watched Punch-Drunk Love yesterday based on this recommendation and enjoyed it tremendously! Adam Sandler is a revelation, and at many times in the film I felt as though I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or remain in shock. A terrific feeling. Cannot wait to show this to friends and family,
I'm with Darren; the movie is painful to watch. I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but I don't think I'll be re-watching it soon due to it being hard to watch Adam Sandler's character.
But it's not an Adam Sandler movie. Adam Sandler is in it. People hated Andrew Dice Clay and he was in a Woody Allen Movie and he was very good in it. Because he was told what to do and didn't have a hand in writing it.
For years, I have been listening to Mark Kermode going on about how you can't pre-judge a film on the basis of its star or director, because Adam Sandler was excellent in Punch Drunk Love. He was going on about it again, in fact, right here in this video which I was listening to while ironing the other day. So I decided to check it out - and, although I'm not quite sure how I feel about the film itself, I'm certainly glad that I gave it the time. It's Sandler's best work by a country mile; he creates a believable, vulnerable, awkward character who is prone to psychotic outbursts, but is ultimately quiet, kind and well-meaning. His burgeoning love affair with Emily Watson's character, though tinged with desperation from both their parts, is sweet and compelling and I found myself really routing for them to still be together come the end of the film. The Paul Thomas Anderson quirkiness - specifically in the use of bursting swathes of bright, translucent colour and the fast tick-tocking score throughout - made for an odd movie experience, but there was enough going on in this film that it has stuck with me for a couple of days, much as the Jake Gyllenhaal doppelgänger tale Enemy did a few weeks ago, making me take to the internet again, in search of more information about what it all means (...Barry Egan is Superman, apparently). But to see Adam Sandler go toe-to-toe with Philip Seymour Hoffman and more than hold his own makes me wonder just how much dramatic talent could this guy produce, if only he would stop wasting his time with those lame, stupid, cookie-cutter, so-called comedies that have come to render the phrase "An Adam Sandler movie" synonymous with the sudden desire to kick yourself in the testicles.
I love Punch Drunk Love. But, how can you justify it being his best film when his other films such as Magnolia and There Will Be Blood are of such epic proportion. I consider Magnolia to be his best film because there are literally 10 characters with the depth of Sandler's character in that film.
My ranking: Dont Judge 1. Inherent Vice 2. Magnolia 3. There Will Be Blood 4. Boogie Nights 5. Phantom Thread 6. Punch- Drunk Love 7. The Master 8. Hard Eight
Whilst it's proof Sandler can act, he consistently chooses not to on a regular basis, preferring a career in starring in, writing and producing awful, degrading comedies. I can't champion that man.
Yes I wholeheartedly agree with him about Sandler. He redeemed himself in this role. He was excellent and I decided he's a good actor! Surprised. And I love this film. It's one of his best, in my opinion; the worst being the unbearably dark There Will Be Blood (unwilling to watch a second time) and The Master, which I bought on faith, and I threw it away midway through. Thanks for this upload.
"Stuart, I wanted to ask you about "Punch Drunk Love". Instead can you tell me why you are both Steve Copull and Neil Innes from Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band?"
There Will Be Blood is definitely his best in terms of pure craft, but I prefer Punch-Drunk Love. I also like the fact that it's a lot shorter. I think TWBB and Magnolia are masterpieces, but whenever a film's substantially over 2 hours, no matter how good it is I have kind of an aversion to rewatching it (although I have still watched those two multiple times) whereas that doesn't enter into it with PDL.
Probably safe to say I wouldn't have watched this film had it been any other director, but Paul Thomas Anderson is a must.. even with Adam Sandler (he does give an amazing performance though I have to admit).
Anderson has said he's a big fan of Adam Sandler's movies, which is...troubling...but what he did so brilliantly with Punch-Drunk Love was to create a character that embodies or encapsulates every facet of what we think of as the Sandler personality--earnestness, awkwardness, anxiety, repressed rage, infantilism (all of which have been on display since his SNL days and throughout his juvenile films)--and finally, magically, presents all of this in a way that adds up to a truly human and endearing screen character. It's the Sandler we've always wanted to see, and perhaps always hoped existed, because as intolerable as Adam's movies are, there's still this innately likable quality to Adam himself. Anderson said he wanted to show the world that Sandler could act. Maybe he did. But what I think Anderson really did was show us that HE knew what to do with him. I agree with Mark that this is Anderson's best film, the one I re-view most often and which delivers the most emotional resonance. It's also one of the greatest marriages of sight and sound. Jon Brion's contribution to film music is profound, and his work with Anderson ranks right up there with Hitchcock and Herrmann, Greenaway and Nyman, De Palma and Donaggio, W. Anderson and Mothersbaugh, Lynch and Badalamenti. The only sadness is that Sandler rarely tried after this. Spanglish was an honorable attempt, but it wasn't until Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, so many years later, that we were reminded of what Adam could do in the hands of the right director and writer.
Punch Drunk Love is, without a doubt, a fantastic movie. But I have to disagree that it is Paul Thomas Anderson's best movie. It's certainly, if I were to bet on it, Adam Sandler's best movie - but PTA's other films (notably Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood) are much more ambitious and masterfully-made than PDL.
I worship at the alter of Wittertainment and thought I should give Punch Drunk Love a go, seeing as Dr K loves it so much. I also truly despise the work of Adam Sandler I just don't get it the love Dr K has for this film, I obviously didn't see the film that he sees! Interesting blog entry, but I must admit that Dr K's questions were very leading!
Sandler was well cast, but I have to say that There Will Be Blood is easily the best PTA film. Boogie Nights is an excellent film and probably an excellent zeitgiest movie, much like TWBB just has the perfect content to match PTA's style. Also I watched Mission: Impossible in that cinema, 19 years ago. Man I'm old!
Surely it should be sold as a Paul Thomas Anderson film, and not an Adam Sandler film. There are directors I will see pretty much irrespective of the actors chosen, because I know they were chosen for very specific reasons; reasons which hopefully become apparent as I watch it.
Not a Sandler fan at all, but i really loved him in You Don't Mess With The Zohan. Not because that film was great as a whole, but because he was actually playing a different person and not this lazy unbothered slight-variation of himself that we get in every other Dennis Dugan-directed film he makes.
I'm yet to see Inherent Vice but I'm a massive fan of PTA, he truly is one of the greatest talents in cinema today. Punch Drunk Love is a wonderful, quirky film and Sandler is undoubtedly very good in it. For me though, my favourite PTA film will probably always be Magnolia (a hugely important film for me and in my all time top 5), very closely followed by There Will Be Blood
Just watched Punch Drunk Love again last night. Really enjoyed watching it again. Sandler i like some of his movies dont like some. I watched this film a long time ago and was amazed by how good Sandler was in this.
Some artists have one great performance, one great book or song in them, but no more. Don't keep expecting Adam Sandler to make another great movie. This may have been his.
I think its a bit like Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut. He's a actor you loathe but the director uses those creepy bits you dont like him and use them properly in the movie.
I'm sure people will say the same about Vince Vaughn after watching True Detective Season 2, i see a potential for a great role in him, even though his previous roles irritated me !!!
Thanks Mark for recommending Punch Drunk Love. I just watched it for the first time, and I was really amazed by how good Adam Sandler was in the movie.
Adam Sandler proved in this film that he could act. It is such a shame he reverted back to brain dead comedies. I guess it is all about the money for him.
Jonathan Melia That happens to be my mother (I'm the one waiting behind her). I did explain to her what a blatant violation of code this was, but her mind was made. I deeply apologise for this disturbance of the peace, it shall not happen again. :P
Can someone explain the difference between 35mm and digital? I understand 35mm is actual film reels, but what is the difference in film quality?, surely digital is far superior.
bonnie43uk I'm no expert but I'm to believe that there is a certain richness and quality to 35mm that digital arguably struggles to replicate. Differences also exist in the editing process which impacts the final product. Digital does have many advantages in its functionality and low cost. I recommend the documentary 'Side by Side' which offers views from various big name directors and films people, if you're interested in the subject :)
bonnie43uk it is mostly down to the process. Many directors find that film is part of film making. I know that sounds redundant but the process of film vs digital is very very different in every respect. The actors are even affected by film in ways you wouldn't expect. Digital noise can replicate the texture of film now to the point I can't tell the difference so I don't think its about the look of the format any longer.
What makes the Criterion edition special is not only the fact that it's a 2016 remaster that is directly approved by Paul Thomas Anderson himself but it also includes numerous bonus features that you wouldn't find on the standard releases of the film since, well, the Criterion edition of it was just released two weeks ago.
I agree with that guy, this movie makes me feel uncomfortable too. When I first saw it I expected it to be funny and I just winced a lot. I've watched it again recently and found a couple of laughs now I know what I'm NOT going to get, but I still think this films suffers from an identity crisis.
PTA's best: 1. There Will Be Blood 2. Boogie Nights 3. The Master 4. Inherent Vice 5. Punch-Drunk Love 6. Magnolia Still haven't seen Hard Eight though.
1. Punch Drunk Love 2. Boogie Nights 3. Inherent Vice 4. The Master5. There Will Be Blood Unpopular opinion, I know, but I loved all of these films and will be willing to watch them at any time. The first three are at least 9 out of 10, with Master and Blood being 8's. I will admit that my love of PDL was spurred on by Kermode's endorsement a few years back, but I've also disagreed with the Good Doctor on quite a few films (including my second favourite of all time, Synecdoche New York) so I don't feel that I'm copying his opinion. It's also been a while since I've seen Blood, so I'm probably due a rewatch, especially now that I've seen much more of PTA's filmography.
Love this. Wish I could go round nightclubs and be like "so a lot of people think they don't like Broken Note but here to demonstrate how awesome Broken Note is we've got a 800K valve sound system, strap in, dickheads!" and then just blast them until they finally see the universal truth