Word: andersonã
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Punch-Drunk Love, the latest movie from master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, is a fresh, subdued playlet of a comedy from a director famed for grand melodramatic spectacle. It has the same brand of cinematic flair that nourished Anderson??€™s modern classics Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but it’s a matured sort of flair; it’s quieter, more sparingly used. What Anderson has created with Punch-Drunk Love is not his best work, but it’s certainly his artiest—formally brilliant, deliberately paced and rife with transcendent moments...
...blue-suited salesperson with a warehouse office, seven emasculating sisters and a problem with emotional stability. Sandler’s performance is finely modulated, its simmering tenor punctuated by hilarious bursts of rage and passion. It’s a two-gear acting style that aligns marvelously with Anderson??€™s measured sense of storytelling...
...Anderson??€™s story begins with Barry in the dumps, burdened with a trying job and a smothering family, and goes on to track his journey towards happiness and fulfillment. Barry’s catalyst for this journey comes in the form of Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), with whom Barry becomes so smitten that he follows her on a trip to Hawaii. At the same time, he gets to exercise his developing backbone when he becomes the target of a extortionist phone sex operator who dispatches goons to shake Barry down for cash...
...it’s a spare, simple odyssey, made to seem even slower thanks to Anderson??€™s continued love of lengthy takes and time-killing, character-building prattle. It never stops dead, but it feels long even for its 90-minute running time...
...same time, Anderson??€™s work here is as wise and assured as anything else he’s done; he knows the difference between fair and unfair characterizations, he understands the dimensions of forgiveness, and he’s enamored with the potential for magic in the everyday. Most of all, he believes in the self-improving power of love; it is love that provides a channel for Barry’s rage, turning him into a kind of superman—focused, empowered, yet dependent on Lena for his strength...