Anticipating Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza

2014

PTA's been on a roll since his first movie, imo. Even his not great movies, whichever ones one thinks are not great, are always interesting and worth seeing.

And Jeffrey Wells has leaned so far into his role as an idiot villain he makes nu-Arm0nd look nuanced and insightful in comparison. At least the latter still watches and analyzes movies, some of the time.

i pledge to never read anything about movies ever again unless an ilxor wrote it

wells' review of Wizard of Oz (1939) - "judy garland is certainly a bombshell and a good casting decision, but what's with the long dress all the time? the tin man, scarecrow, and lion supporting cast was an absolute mess - all three are clearly older men in costumes and makeup. and why didn't scarecrow have a sex scene with dorothy at the end? clearly there was a connection there."

PTA's been on a roll since his first movie, imo. Even his not great movies, whichever ones one thinks are not great, are always interesting and worth seeing.

Counterpoint: nah

I really really did not like The Master but it was interesting and I guess worth seeing somehow. Moreso than say Hateful 8 which I didn't like either but didn't have as strong a negative reaction as with The Master.

I can watch Hard Eight anytime but can't finish Magnolia and will not dare to endure Punch Drunk Love again.

My hot take is that The Master had some wonderful scenes and incredible performances, but was not a very good movie.

i am not the one to be in this discussion, because i am a fool, but i'll bet that to some people, "some wonderful scenes and incredible performances" adds up to a "good movie", even if the rest of the elements aren't quite so impressive. kind of like a musical performance/album can be saved by some exceptional elements

i'm not sure i believe that, mind you -- i don't, i don't think -- but just wondrin

I hated "Hateful Eight" so much.

I was being a little flip, I just didn't think it all held together as a satisfying film. I loved PSH and Joaquin's performances and they had some incredible moments together, but I was frustrated that they only hinted at some of the more interesting things going on around them (Amy Adams was wasted, imo, and I think there was a more interesting thread about how her character influenced Dodd, but it was only hinted at). I didn't hate the move, it's just the last PTA movie I want to revisit at this point.

Eh I'm already wanted to walk back that Adams was "wasted", I just wanted more of her in it.

almost everyone in the movie was wasted to one degree or another though, haha, wouldn't surprise me

To borrow from Kael, The Master was straining so hard to be great it wasn't even good.

did you even SEE that scene where joaquin phoenix fucks the sand though? to me, that was everything

Paging Wakefield Poole.

I just reviewed the key plot lines of Boys in the Sand and I don’t see anything about fucking the actual sand. I will continue to believe that PT Anderson and Phoenix pioneered sand masturbation until confronted with earlier footage

straining so hard to be great it wasn't even good

This describes Boogie Nights perfectly.

I want to like Boogie Nights more than I do, but as a writer he fell in love with the character bits that didn't cohere into characters, then couldn't orchestrate them.

I've realized the PTA I like is the director of comedies and chamber dramas.

Except Boogie Nights is a comedy, imo, and a great one at that.

Straining so hard to be great it's not even any good describes stuff like The Irishman, not Boogie Nights, imo. Boogie Nights might be kids stuff, but he was practically a kid, and I can't fault the directing or the acting, and more than a handful of scenes are practically iconic at this point. Not even considering that movie good strikes me as revisionism, though I suppose if you don't like it you just don't like it.

"you" in this case being any of us.

xp to myself - At least the first 2/3rds before the heavy handedness kicks in.

His more explicit comedies, like Punch Drunk and Inherent Vice, are the ones I least want to see again. But all of his movies are funny, to an extent. Comedies of the human condition.

I was frustrated that they only hinted at some of the more interesting things going on around them

this is otm for me. i wish i saw what other people see in his last 3 but i just cant get there. they each feel like he's settled into this mode of where theres all these great actors filmed beautifully, arrayed into really interesting characters and relationships located in a really fascinating specific historical milieu, and as they orbit each other a movie always seems to be juuuust on the verge of breaking out but never quite does. eventually it feels like its all just about teeing up shots for Our Finest Actors to get to do Big Important Acting Moments, and i check out.

I can watch Phantom Thread any time.

The last half is a dare triumphantly realized, and as much as the film works as a depiction of masculine ego it's also damn funny, because, after all, we need good tea and sausage for breakfast and a martini with a twist after a hard day.

In other words: no consensus!

I still haven't seen Phantom Thread!

xpost That's just it, the fact that he's made so many movies yet there is no consensus which ones are the good/great ones really sets him apart for me. They're (mostly) all pretty interesting/novel.

What gets me is how often he fumbles in the last half-hour, to the point where I'm saying, "That's what he thinks this film is all about?!?" The Master is the only one with a great denouement, but they almost all have great scenes and performances (Inherent Vice lost me completely).

i got a bit lost during inherent vice, but i get a bit lost during all pynchon stories so it seemed normal

lol, yes, that felt very faithful to the source material

"That's what he thinks this film is all about?!?" The Master is the only one with a great denouement,

Ha The Master is the ne plus ultra film for me having this reaction

i remember watching the end of phantom thread and getting really excited at the last scene, thinking "ah what a great development! its going to be really interesting watching PTA and these actors explore this in the second half of the movie!" but then the credits rolled :/

Haha same

But why continue? It would rehash what we just watched in the last 50 minutes.

Anyone who hates on Boogie Nights is a fucking demon afaic, that movie is hysterically funny and bleak and pitch-perfect for what it is. Even the outtakes are great.

i feel like there's no strain in the master at all, and in fact that's what distinguishes it from his previous films. things are allowed to be

it is also amazing to me that people don't get inherent vice which is a lovely film on the surface and beneath that surface a seismograph of the slow death of american culture set right in the waning of the hippie era and the dawning of the yuppie era to the point where you can feel everyone in the film's possibilities and fundamental dignity being restrained/undermined by the untrammeled flow of capital and corruption but i guess we aren't stoned all the time

and like ..... any good noir(?), following the mystery isn't the point

xp to Alfred idk, im speculating about a movie that doesnt exist, but its not hard to imagine there would be some interesting things to explore w/two characters in that setting who have come to that realization about themselves & each other. for a filmmaking style that is so much about patiently observing unusual humans as they move through very specific worlds, i definitely didnt see that scene and think "ah, now i know everything i need to know about these two characters, nothing further needed!"

but also, like Halfway There, i also assumed the movie was going somewhere different. it seemed kind of obvious, more of the "yes, finally" feeling of a plot finally turning than a satisfying ending for me. i felt similar w/the master - after 87 consecutive scenes of them acting out an unrequited love, the final scene just left me thinking "thats it? thats all we're going to do with this?"

tbf phantom thread is one i havent revisted, i wonder if i'd get more out of it now that i understand the shape of it.

I just enjoyed Inherent Vice a lot better as a novel.

(I haven’t watched this trailer yet and have never been a PTA stan but maybe it’d be fun to be part of the party this cycle.)

i feel like there's no strain in the master at all, and in fact that's what distinguishes it from his previous films. things are allowed to be

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson

otm -- he became a better writer and a better director of his scripts

a seismograph of the slow death of american culture set right in the waning of the hippie era

It's obvious that this is what he wanted to do with Inherent Vice, I just thought it was a pale shadow of the films that did this at the time, like Night Moves, 92 in the Shade, The Last Movie, etc.

The Big Lebowski.

the long goodbye even