One Banger After Another: The Films Of Paul Thomas Anderson

Long before the tracking shots and 70mm epics, Paul Thomas Anderson burst onto the scene with Hard Eight—a sleek, slow-burn neo-noir about lost souls who take us in…and the secrets they bring with them. The legendary Philip Baker Hall stars as Sydney, a professional gambler with ice in his veins and a soft spot for the desperate. When he meets down-on-his-luck John (John C. Reilly), he offers him more than just a hand up—he offers him a future. But when a cocktail waitress (Gwyneth Paltrow) and a reckless criminal (Samuel L. Jackson) enter the mix, things unravel fast—and quiet dignity turns to blood-soaked reckoning. Shot with precision and restraint, and humming with tension beneath every word, Hard Eight is a masterclass in economy, tone, and atmosphere. It’s PTA at his most subtle—and still unmistakably him.

Step into the neon-lit world of Boogie Nights, the breakout film that announced Paul Thomas Anderson as the most exciting American filmmaker of his generation.  Mark Wahlberg stars as Eddie Adams, a shy busboy turned adult film superstar Dirk Diggler, whose meteoric rise and fall tracks the industry’s shift from ‘70s glam to ‘80s sleaze. Along for the ride: a dream ensemble that includes Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, Heather Graham, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and William H. Macy, all orbiting a world where dreams come true until they don’t. At once a wild, raucous ride through the golden age of the adult film industry and a deeply human epic about family, fame, and the price of chasing the spotlight, Boogie Nights swings hard—and lands every punch.

Magnolia, a love letter to coincidence and a cry for connection, is the kind of maximalist, go-for-broke filmmaking that few dare to attempt—and no one does like Paul Thomas Anderson. Simultaneously epic and intimate, Magnolia (1999) is a film that feels like a storm—swirling with regret, redemption, rage, love, and the deep, deep need to be heard. Across one long day in the San Fernando Valley, lives collide: game show kids, dying fathers, broken lovers, estranged children, and one motivational speaker with a heart full of rot. Featuring an all-timer ensemble—Tom Cruise (in an Oscar-nominated role), Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters, Jason Robards, and more—Magnolia is a symphony of raw performances, tracking shots, Aimee Mann songs, and unexpected grace.

Punch-Drunk Love—Paul Thomas Anderson’s strangest, sweetest, and most unexpectedly explosive film, is back at The Frida Cinema for one night only. Starring Adam Sandler in the performance of his career, this isn’t just a love story—it’s a pressure cooker disguised as a rom-com, wrapped in harmonium chords and shimmering blue light. Sandler is Barry Egan, a painfully lonely novelty toilet plunger salesman with seven sisters, a hair-trigger temper, and a secret stash of pudding cups he’s collecting to hack a frequent flyer program. Enter Lena (Emily Watson), and suddenly, Barry’s life teeters from implosion to unlikely redemption—while being chased by phone sex scammers and Philip Seymour Hoffman at full “shut up shut up shut up” intensity. Punch-Drunk Love is PTA at his most deceptively small, strangely romantic, and vibrantly unhinged.

From the scorched deserts of California to the inner depths of one man’s ambition comes There Will Be Blood, Paul Thomas Anderson's  monumental American saga—one of the greatest films of the 21st century. Daniel Day-Lewis delivers a titanic, Oscar-winning performance as Daniel Plainview, a silver miner turned oilman whose thirst for power burns brighter than the derricks he erects across the West. As towns rise and morals fall, Plainview wages war—against the land, against the Church, and eventually, against his own humanity. Across from him: Paul Dano, pulling double duty as twin brothers and spiritual adversaries, locked in a violent dance of faith and greed. Shot by Robert Elswit in apocalyptic beauty and scored with nerve-jangling dread by Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood is a film that doesn’t just depict America’s creation myth—it bleeds it.

A film about power, persuasion, and the impossible hunger for meaning, The Master is Paul Thomas Anderson’s haunting American odyssey—equal parts postwar character study and cosmic riddle.  Joaquin Phoenix is Freddie Quell, a drifting, volatile Navy veteran untethered in the wake of WWII. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Lancaster Dodd, a charismatic cult leader who sees something in Freddie—something primal, dangerous, maybe divine. Their connection is...combustible. Shot in stunning 65mm and lit like a dream slipping into a nightmare, The Master floats through smoky banquet halls, ocean liners, and desert retreats, all while unspooling big questions with no easy answers. It’s a film of gestures, glances, and eruptions—a push and pull between control and chaos.

Paul Thomas Anderson's shaggy dog detective story in flip-flops and a denim jacket, Inherent Vice adapts Thomas Pynchon’s psychedelic noir into a deliriously funny trip through the fogged-out tail end of the 1960s. Joaquin Phoenix is Doc Sportello—private eye, deeply stoned romantic, and very possibly the last good man in Los Angeles—as he stumbles through a tangled conspiracy involving real estate developers, surf saxophonists, runaway girlfriends, and something called the Golden Fang. With a killer cast (Josh Brolin! Katherine Waterston! Owen Wilson! Reese Witherspoon! Martin Short!), a dreamy Jonny Greenwood score, and PTA’s most straight-up goofy film to date, Inherent Vice is a smokey ode to things slipping away one step at a time.

Come see Paul Thomas Anderson's elegant masterpiece, Phantom Thread, as it was meant to be seen: on the big screen! Set in the haute-couture world of 1950s London and wrapped in lace and poisonous glances, Phantom Thread  is a love story—though maybe not the kind you bring home to mother. Daniel Day-Lewis (always brilliant) is Reynolds Woodcock, a genius dressmaker obsessed with beauty, routine, and control. Enter Alma (Vicky Krieps), a quiet waitress who upends his world—not with chaos, but with her own willpower, as graceful and unrelenting as his. What begins as muse and artist becomes something far more unsettling—a power struggle played out through fashion, food, and the sharp edge of devotion. Jonny Greenwood’s lush, aching score swells like a secret, and Anderson’s camera moves like hands through fabric: precise and just slightly dangerous.

Licorice Pizza closes out our Paul Thomas Anderson retrospective at The Frida—young, wild, and stumbling into love. The year is 1973. The streets of the San Fernando Valley are paved with shag carpet, gas lines, and impossible dreams. And in the middle of it all: Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), child actor and hustle king, and Alana Kane (Alana Haim), adrift and electric, unsure of what she wants—except, maybe, everything. Licorice Pizza is PTA at his loosest and most lovingly chaotic—a meandering and utterly sincere coming-of-age epic that captures the awkwardness of growing up and falling in love. With a supporting cast that includes Bradley Cooper as a deranged Jon Peters, Benny Safdie as a local politician, and every storefront in The Valley as a supporting character, the film is a mixtape of growing up in Southern California.