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ITT: Definitive Ranking of Paul Thomas Anderson Films
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Date: September 30th, 2025 11:24 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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.
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Date: September 30th, 2025 8:27 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316036) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 8:46 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets Everyone agrees (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316895) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 8:51 AM Author: soul-stirring boiling water institution Gen X just makes the Same Movie. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49316901) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 8:58 AM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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 |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 10:31 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets You didn’t like OBAA?
I also feel like The Master is massively polarizing, but I liked it after a second watch. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:19 AM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:34 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets How many DVDs do you own? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317195) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 2:30 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed About 30 (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317556) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:03 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets Are you renting dvds? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317692) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:06 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed No (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317704) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:38 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:57 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 9/30 = 30%
It's safe to say I'm a PTA fan. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 10:49 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets You’re a PTA completist (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318598) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:14 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed Yeah but I actually like most of em (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318640) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 10:35 AM Author: Zombie-like Piazza Legal Warrant 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) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:33 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets Which one is great? (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317194) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:42 AM Author: Zombie-like Piazza Legal Warrant TWBB (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49317205) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 2:34 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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 |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:56 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 3:59 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 7:18 PM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 7:25 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:16 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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 |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:33 PM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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. |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:57 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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 |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:05 AM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:06 AM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:12 AM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed What do you do in the arts (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318753) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:23 AM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:31 AM Author: Charcoal vibrant station half-breed You should make a Noah Baumbach style movie about it (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318776) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:19 PM Author: no.1 clocksmasher 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:42 PM Author: Goys taking the L 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) |
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Date: October 3rd, 2025 7:46 AM Author: A Dick is Not Dispositive (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49321621) |
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Date: October 3rd, 2025 4:01 PM Author: no.1 clocksmasher a couple of upchucked coons guffawing at their gas station bologna sandwich "jokes" itt autoadmit geek show |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:37 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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. |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:24 PM Author: no.1 clocksmasher 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 |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 7:27 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone it's a pillow mint on a hospice cot (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318234) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 7:26 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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 |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 11:59 PM Author: very tactful mind-boggling telephone 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 10:56 PM Author: A Dick is Not Dispositive 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) |
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Date: October 1st, 2025 7:26 PM Author: Frozen nursing home mental disorder Yeah, I really enjoyed Inherent Vice the 2nd time through. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49318231) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:20 PM Author: no.1 clocksmasher 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 |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 12:28 AM Author: comical crackhouse 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:38 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 8:38 AM Author: lilac corner nibblets 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:42 PM Author: seek christ ((zurich is stained)) 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) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 2:43 PM Author: Goys taking the L (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49320090) |
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Date: October 2nd, 2025 11:20 PM Author: goy orbison (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5781505&forum_id=2#49321249) |