Director Spotlight: Paul Thomas Anderson
Plus: we review three new releases, including Oscar hopeful "King Richard"
There are many highly anticipated movies yet to come in the last month of 2021, but the one we are most giddy for is Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s California-set coming-of-age film Licorice Pizza. Anderson is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working today, and here at Do You Like Apples, we proudly call ourselves PTA acolytes.
While Licorice Pizza is out in very limited release today, it won’t be unveiled nationwide until Christmas. Still, this seemed like a good time to finally do a PTA Director Spotlight. We’ve recommended a couple of his movies in the past, so we have re-posted them here, as well as written two new recommendations. Then stay for our mini-reviews for recent releases such as King Richard and C’mon C’mon. Read and enjoy!
Drew recommends…
The Master (streaming on Netflix)
“You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody”- Bob Dylan, “Gotta Serve Somebody”
The Master is a challenging and often opaque film, but some of the final lines of dialogue couldn’t be clearer. Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), leader of a burgeoning religious movement called “The Cause,” tells troubled drifter Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), “If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you’d be the first person in the history of the world.” In contrast to Bob Dylan’s song, which is asking listeners to consider that since everyone must serve someone or something, you might as well serve God, this line reading in The Master is ironic coming from Dodd, because he is the master that so many in his cult are serving.
This quote from Paul Thomas Anderson’s thinly veiled depiction of the early days of Scientology has struck me anew every time I’ve seen The Master. There’s a kernel of truth to it that has been warped by Dodd and his cause. Yes, everyone must serve a master, but neither Dodd nor Freddie is particularly receptive to their potential masters. The two characters are alike in that they are both lost souls searching for meaning and purpose, just in very, very different ways. As a character inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Dodd is a charismatic and entrepreneurial leader of men that has built a following based on nothing but his delusional ideas. He welcomes Freddie, an alcoholic World War II veteran that can’t find his place in society, into his movement because he sees a kinship in Freddie’s adrift nature.
The pacing, writing, and performances in The Master are atypical to most movies. There’s no traditional three-act structure. There’s no grand speech at the end that ties up all the themes and loose ends in a nice bow. It resists easy interpretation and expectation-filling. It took me a couple viewings of this peculiar film to recognize its brilliance -- and I’m still not sure I know fully what Anderson is driving at -- but he has packed this immaculately crafted movie with many ideas, such as postwar masculinity, authority and autonomy, religion and belief, trauma and codependency, and much, much more.
PTA was lucky enough to get three of the finest actors of the last few decades to play the leads in Hoffman, Phoenix, and Amy Adams, who are all so incredibly game to explore the psychic depths of their not-so-straightforward characters. And the casting of smaller parts, such as Rami Malek, Jesse Plemons, and Laura Dern, couldn’t be better, showing that PTA is fully in tune with the characters and story he’s telling here.
This is an enigmatic and demanding film that really forces you to lean in. You won’t glean much by passively watching it. If you meet The Master halfway and wrestle with it meaningfully, it can be a unique and enriching experience. I understand that this won’t be for everyone, but I will just end by saying that while I personally enjoy wrestling with The Master every time I revisit it, I’ve also learned to just embrace the mystery, where PTA is the master I’m serving for a moment.
There Will Be Blood (streaming on Netflix)
This is a re-post from a May 2020 newsletter
The year 2007 was one for the ages at the movies. You had award-winning dramas like No Country for Old Men, Michael Clayton, and Atonement, beloved comedies like Superbad, Juno, and Ratatouille, and underappreciated gems like Zodiac, The Assassination of Jesse James, and Gone Baby Gone. However, the crown jewel of this extraordinary movie year remains There Will Be Blood.
Have you ever come to love a movie that you didn’t like the first time you saw it? I remember my dad rented the Netflix DVD (remember that?) of There Will Be Blood and I watched the first half or so before bailing on what I thought was a slow-moving and sleepy drama. A couple years later I revisited it only to discover the masterpiece that I had initially overlooked. The film's length (2 hours, 38 minutes) and the story’s scope (a plot that covers over three decades) may seem too drawn out at first glance, but once I surrendered the movie my full attention and let the beautiful and strange images and sounds wash over me, I realized this was a work of astounding ambition and skill.
The two main creative forces behind There Will Be Blood are undoubtedly writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson and lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis…
Hard Eight (streaming on Amazon Prime)
This is a re-post from an April 2020 newsletter
A gambling movie that doesn’t actually show that much gambling, Hard Eight is a remarkable character study of a lonely former mobster trying to escape his past life. It’s a patient and tender film about regret and redemption that happens to be set in the casinos of Vegas and Reno.
Hard Eight is the debut of one of the great directors working today, Paul Thomas Anderson. Before he went on to create magnificent works like There Will Be Blood and The Master, he directed this minor portrait of Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), a successful professional gambler that comes across the miserable and desperate John (John C. Reilly). Sydney takes John under his wing and teaches him how to make it as a pro gambler.
For a first-timer, Anderson wrote memorable characters that inspired curiosity about their pasts and interior lives…
Billy recommends…
Punch-Drunk Love (streaming on HBO Max)
Rewatching this time around I was completely in sync with the anxiety of our main character Barry Egan. A series of moments where the politeness we are told to uphold and loneliness we are supposed to hide becomes a high wire act of trying to maintain some civility. An unlikely lead performance (at the time) from Adam Sandler that is carried by some of our world's greatest character actors.
I truly can’t project how Licorice Pizza (his newest not yet widely released film) is going to feel, but I imagine that Punch-Drunk Love is Anderson’s response to what he was feeling at his 30ish age and the former is him looking back at a time he romanticizes. Or maybe I’m relating too much to his filmography in my old age. Clearly an existential crisis is looming.
PTA’s work has been a presence that allows me to look forward, present, and into the past with every project he has taken on, throwing myself into any character he has on screen. I hope you all can do the same with his filmography. Pick up almost anywhere and you will find a character you can connect to.
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
King Richard (in theaters and streaming on HBO Max)
Drew: Sometimes movie star power can overcome just about any shortcoming. That’s mostly the case for King Richard, a well-crafted but pretty standard inspirational sports movie. In his best performance in well over a decade, Will Smith powers this film from start to finish with sheer star wattage grounded in a fully realized portrayal of Richard Williams, the father to Venus and Serena. Smith gets across Richard’s dogged determination, his blunt humor, and the more complex flaws that add depth and dimension. It’s a highlight reel moment for one of our biggest movie stars. - 3.5 / 5 Apples
Billy: I was all about Soderbergh’s Oscars last year, but if the Oscars allow Will Smith to be nominated and possibly win then the whole night needs to be centered around clips of him being a movie star.
Is King Richard by the numbers? Sure. Do I want more simple movies that highlight our most charismatic actors acting? Absolutely. There are potentially 3 actors worthy of a nomination.
This didn’t invent anything new, but it got me excited for this season of releases. Let’s ride this into Oscar season. - 3 / 5 Apples
C’mon, C’mon (in theaters)
Drew: Joaquin Phoenix is famously one of the most intense and all-consuming actors on the planet, so it was a refreshing change of pace to watch him interact with a 9-year-old in C’mon, C’mon, writer-director Mike Mills’ low-key yet open-hearted film about parents, children, and what the future holds. Without resorting to cheap sentimentality, this is a warm and wise film full of genuine feeling. Phoenix is so natural and tender here that he makes you forget all the unstable psychopaths he’s played in the past. A rare and welcome accomplishment. - 4 / 5 Apples
Tick, Tick… Boom! (streaming on Netflix)
Drew: While not typically a fan of musical theater, I am interested in the examination of an artist’s creative process. However, Tick, Tick… Boom! failed to capture my imagination. I have to admire Andrew Garfield for really Going For It, but this portrait of Rent creator Jonathan Larson is in too much of a hurry to slow down and allow its dramatic beats to leave an impact. I’m guessing theater kids will find plenty to love, I just had a hard time connecting. - 2.5 / 5 Apples