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ITT: Definitive Ranking of Paul Thomas Anderson Films

1. There Will Be Blood 2. Punch Drunk Love 3. Magnolia 4....
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  09/30/25
...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  09/30/25
Everyone agrees
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
Gen X just makes the Same Movie.
Exciting Thirsty Kitchen Pozpig
  10/01/25
1. Boogie Nights 2. There Will Be Blood 3. Magnolia 4. P...
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
You didn’t like OBAA? I also feel like The Master i...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
It's the only one I haven't seen. I will wait for it to come...
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
How many DVDs do you own?
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
About 30
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
Are you renting dvds?
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
No
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
But you intend this film to become 3 percent of your DVD col...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
9/30 = 30% It's safe to say I'm a PTA fan.
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
You’re a PTA completist
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
Yeah but I actually like most of em
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
One great film, maybe one of the best ever, and the rest is ...
Henna histrionic halford
  10/01/25
Which one is great?
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
TWBB
Henna histrionic halford
  10/01/25
Inherent Vice had the superlative scene with Brolin playing ...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
Lots to unpack here. I love Inherent Vice, but structurally...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
The biggest ding on Inherent Vice is that the book was subst...
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
I think OUATIH may be his most substantial film. Really spe...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/01/25
I legitimately hated it. That being said it had some great i...
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
Too much editing, it reads like he OCD nitpicked hard throug...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
Cr I am someone who thinks that every great movie has a g...
mauve flickering school
  10/01/25
qui gon was a plot necessary nobody but 2 and 3 were both pr...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
Did you ever end up using your BFA in Film to get a job
mauve flickering school
  10/02/25
i'm a bachelor who happens to be in the fine arts but i don'...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/02/25
What do you do in the arts
mauve flickering school
  10/02/25
i used to represent. i got an offer from an portraitist rece...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/02/25
You should make a Noah Baumbach style movie about it
mauve flickering school
  10/02/25
he's talented but i prefer wes anderson for that type of fil...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/02/25
Yeah but you seem more like a Noah Baumbach type of mewling ...
mauve flickering school
  10/02/25
...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/03/25
a couple of upchucked coons guffawing at their gas station b...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/03/25
Cliff is the protagonist, not Rick. The Bruce Lee scene is ...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/02/25
i don't disagree but i found it inappropriate wrt the story ...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/02/25
it's a pillow mint on a hospice cot
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
Pynchon doesn't translate well to film. Neither would DFW fo...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
It's actually a pretty interesting juxtaposition when placed...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/01/25
I find this fan trailer to be beautiful: https://youtu.be/gW...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/02/25
Yeah, I really enjoyed Inherent Vice the 2nd time through.
slate contagious set
  10/01/25
you pick up on the humor in the details more it's a very &q...
Crawly chocolate space
  10/02/25
there will be blood is overrated as all fuck, boogie nights ...
Misunderstood hell mental disorder
  10/02/25
Boogie Nights is great, but it's a rip off of Goodfellas.
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/02/25
Telling that no one has challenged Punch Drunk Love at No. 2...
apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm
  10/02/25
...
Amateur Millennial Butt Porn
  11/19/25
...
Emotionally + Physically Abusive Ex-Husband
  11/19/25
i thought licorice pizza and inherent vice were utter shit. ...
aromatic sienna house boistinker
  10/02/25
...
mauve flickering school
  10/02/25
...
Henna histrionic halford
  10/02/25


Poast new message in this thread



Reply Favorite

Date: September 30th, 2025 11:24 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

1. There Will Be Blood

2. Punch Drunk Love

3. Magnolia

4. Hard Eight

5. One Battle After Another

6. The Master

7. Phantom Thread

8. Boogie Nights

9. Inherent Vice

10. Licorice Pizza

Frankly, 2-8 are all almost interchangeable.



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49314433)



Reply Favorite

Date: September 30th, 2025 8:27 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316036)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 8:46 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Everyone agrees

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316895)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 8:51 AM
Author: Exciting Thirsty Kitchen Pozpig

Gen X just makes the Same Movie.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316901)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 8:58 AM
Author: mauve flickering school

1. Boogie Nights

2. There Will Be Blood

3. Magnolia

4. Phantom Thread

5. Punch Drunk Love

-----(substantial drop-off)-----

6. Licorice Pizza

7. Inherent Vice

8. Hard Eight

9. One Battle After Another

10. The Master

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316905)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 10:31 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

You didn’t like OBAA?

I also feel like The Master is massively polarizing, but I liked it after a second watch.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317080)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:19 AM
Author: mauve flickering school

It's the only one I haven't seen. I will wait for it to come out on DVD. I have no interest in seeing it beyond being a completionist. Maybe it's very good. I probably liked Licorice Pizza more than the average viewer.

I have seen The Master several times and I have never enjoyed it at all even a little bit.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317176)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:34 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

How many DVDs do you own?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317195)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 2:30 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

About 30

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317556)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:03 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Are you renting dvds?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317692)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:06 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

No

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317704)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:38 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

But you intend this film to become 3 percent of your DVD collection? What percent of your DVD collection is Paul Thomas Anderson?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317763)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:57 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

9/30 = 30%

It's safe to say I'm a PTA fan.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317797)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 10:49 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

You’re a PTA completist

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318598)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:14 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

Yeah but I actually like most of em

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318640)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 10:35 AM
Author: Henna histrionic halford

One great film, maybe one of the best ever, and the rest is middling gen-x dreck. The Charlie Gordon of film

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317090)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:33 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Which one is great?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317194)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:42 AM
Author: Henna histrionic halford

TWBB

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317205)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 2:34 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

Inherent Vice had the superlative scene with Brolin playing a dicksucking closeted Hoover-coded FBI agent visibly lusting over Phoenix's Ashbury-Haight detective character and excellent Pynchonian set humor throughout. One of the last dramedies defined by a subtle and wry humor that I remember seeing in theaters

Reconsider your position

Licorice Pizza was only any good in the same way that Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time" could be considered as any good and will not hold up in the slightest once a couple years have passed. That said, PTA's best films have all been made *after* his coke addiction went and left. Discuss

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317567)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:56 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Lots to unpack here. I love Inherent Vice, but structurally it is a mess and did not really seem to have much deeper meaning compared to OBAA. I can’t really differentiate it from The Nice Guys or even The Big Lebowski (two great films). It is only a tick below films 2-8.

Licorice Pizza is the only PTA film I really didn’t like and it is several ticks below Inherent Vice.

I think the coke addiction changes are more about PTA growing as an artist and becoming more sure of himself rather than trying to pay homage to Scorsese, as in Boogie Nights.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317793)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 3:59 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

The biggest ding on Inherent Vice is that the book was substantially better than the film. That really dinged it for me.

I'm not gonna say LP was a masterpiece but it was a fun romp. It was a lot better than OUATIH.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317808)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 7:18 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

I think OUATIH may be his most substantial film. Really speaks to me as a middle aged man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318209)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 7:25 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

I legitimately hated it. That being said it had some great individual scenes. But the whole did not add up to anything worth remembering.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318226)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:16 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

Too much editing, it reads like he OCD nitpicked hard through the final cut and lost a good deal of the original vision on the cutting room floor. The plot was also pure wank even for Tarantino

"What if" guys lol win one for positivity! Go us! *contextless Peckinpah gore explosion sans Sam's sense of distinctly Christian morality-driven ambivalence rolls over the credits*. It started off fairly strong and then became pornographic from the Bruce Lee and Manson Ranch bits and on

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318644)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:33 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

Cr

I am someone who thinks that every great movie has a great story, and no good movies don't have a story. There's a great Red Letter Media episode breaking down why the Star Wars prequels suck about this. The guy says describe Han Solo without saying his name and all these people go oh well he's a dashing rogue, a thief with a heart of gold etc. Now describe Qui Gon Jin and they're like uhhh stoic?

It's the same with any great movie. I could probably recite the entire plot of The Godfather scene by scene with no preparation. Now do OUTIH. It's about an actor who's pissed that he's not in movies anymore? He watches TV a lot? And his friend is jacked and they go to the Manson ranch? I guess? It's just not good. Nothing without a plot is good. Show me a good movie with no plot I'll give you one million dollars.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318683)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:57 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

qui gon was a plot necessary nobody but 2 and 3 were both pretty good films imo and will likely hold up later on at least as far as star wars canon goes. Anakin's story is central and strong enough to usually drive the rest of the mediocre plot threads forward. ewan macgregor coming across the clones on the rainy water planet (highly underrated scenes; really, lucas was getting at something genuinely interesting there) and christensen's hemming and hawing around palpatine and padme both stand out pretty well even all of these years later. the finale of 3 and samuel L taking an L both stand on their own as well

counterpoint: some of fellini (that one that was just 8 or 9 unconnected vignettes) or maybe other "low concept" italian experimentation films from the 60s and 70s. the big lebowski has an "anti-plot" which is still a plot in a sense. inherent vice is also in this camp. "paris texas" was more or less plotless but still a gripping film. i guess you could lawyer "nature documentaries" or similar as being great but plotless films. there was a movie from one of the shaw brothers greats that was just a guy walking around hong kong and interacting with street vendors and stuff as a slice of life AV experience but idr the name of it. koyaanisqatsi (sp) was plotless but still a great film

once upon a time definitely has a defined plot but it's self-fellating, pornographic, and all of this happens at a benthic michael bay level of self awareness married to tarantino's similarly high level of technical skill so you wind up with something propagandistic, heavy-handed (especially for the times), and maybe even a little unsettling to rewatch without proper contextualization. like "inglorious basterds" release vis a vis the era it comes across as tone-deaf and not in a genuinely challenging van sant infant terrible auteur way but as a dopamine junkie manchild pooping his pants and gleefully pointing attention to their soiled trouser leg sort of fashion

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318728)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:05 AM
Author: mauve flickering school

Did you ever end up using your BFA in Film to get a job

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318744)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:06 AM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

i'm a bachelor who happens to be in the fine arts but i don't have a bfa

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318747)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:12 AM
Author: mauve flickering school

What do you do in the arts

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318753)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:23 AM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

i used to represent. i got an offer from an portraitist recently to run his fromt end but am too inundated with family tragedy to do much other than mope and cope atm

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318763)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:31 AM
Author: mauve flickering school

You should make a Noah Baumbach style movie about it

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318776)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:19 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

he's talented but i prefer wes anderson for that type of film

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320019)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:42 PM
Author: mauve flickering school

Yeah but you seem more like a Noah Baumbach type of mewling kike imho

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320088)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 3rd, 2025 7:46 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49321621)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 3rd, 2025 4:01 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

a couple of upchucked coons guffawing at their gas station bologna sandwich "jokes" itt

autoadmit geek show

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49322865)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:37 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Cliff is the protagonist, not Rick. The Bruce Lee scene is essential. Cliff goes through a classic hero's journey - Rick is stagnant until the end when he finds strength in Cliff's example.

It's about accepting your limits as a man and then using that acceptance to break forward.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49319082)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:24 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

i don't disagree but i found it inappropriate wrt the story being told and the times being shown

he could've done something radical and artistically bold but instead decided to make more pornography. it's probably going to be the last major film made about the end of the flower generation for a long while. it was a squandered opportunity

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320031)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 7:27 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

it's a pillow mint on a hospice cot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318234)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 7:26 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

Pynchon doesn't translate well to film. Neither would DFW for that matter

The disjointedness is part of the thematic framing as well as an accurate representation of the structure of the plot

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318232)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 11:59 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

It's actually a pretty interesting juxtaposition when placed in contrast to the Tarantino film we're discussing above

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318733)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 10:56 PM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

I find this fan trailer to be beautiful: https://youtu.be/gW39U8nxoQU

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49321204)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 1st, 2025 7:26 PM
Author: slate contagious set

Yeah, I really enjoyed Inherent Vice the 2nd time through.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318231)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:20 PM
Author: Crawly chocolate space

you pick up on the humor in the details more

it's a very "busy" film both in visual texture and dialogue, appropriate for the lushness of the source material

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320023)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:28 AM
Author: Misunderstood hell mental disorder

there will be blood is overrated as all fuck, boogie nights is a better film in all respects it just doesn't have a dark score and dramatic backgrounds

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318771)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:38 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Boogie Nights is great, but it's a rip off of Goodfellas.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49319084)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:38 AM
Author: apoplectic awkward trailer park pisswyrm

Telling that no one has challenged Punch Drunk Love at No. 2.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49319085)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 19th, 2025 4:38 PM
Author: Amateur Millennial Butt Porn



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49444492)



Reply Favorite

Date: November 19th, 2025 4:45 PM
Author: Emotionally + Physically Abusive Ex-Husband (oppose bitchbois)



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49444512)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:42 PM
Author: aromatic sienna house boistinker

i thought licorice pizza and inherent vice were utter shit. PTA is a very uneven filmmaker imo. boogie nights, magnolia and there will be blood are top-tier, but some of his other stuff i really dislike. i thought the master fucking blew. long, plodding, boring.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320089)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:43 PM
Author: mauve flickering school



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320090)



Reply Favorite

Date: October 2nd, 2025 11:20 PM
Author: Henna histrionic halford



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49321249)