Monday, December 31, 2007

#2 Living director--Paul Thomas Anderson

Now it’s getting tough. Anderson is without a doubt the most promising American director working in films today and whose There Will Be Blood is one the most eagerly anticipated films for me in years (see earlier post a few days ago). Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love are all films I really loved. Anderson has not made a film that isn’t terrific yet.

What I like about Anderson is you can see his love of Scorsese and Altman but he uses those icons as his guide to create new, highly complex, highly intelligent and quirky films. Anderson’s writing and the performances he gets out of his actors (he’s fond of character actors which further endears me to him) are flawless.

Like four of the final top five of my favorite living directors, Anderson doesn’t make a lot of films, so when something in the vein of There Will Be Blood comes out, I’ll be there near the front row, absorbing every single second.

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