Harry here... UGH... Dying to see da mobie! Well, I'm afraid I'm doomed to not see this film till well after its release as I'll be off at Sitges in Spain judging a film festival from Oct 1st through Oct 15. So unless by some miracle This movie is programmed to watch on... oh, let's say this coming Monday, then I won't get a chance to chime in about this movie till... nearly a week after it has come out. I still haven't reviewed MAGNOLIA, even though I feel it is absolutely brilliant, due to intense personal issues regarding some of the material, that I have not personally worked out whether or not I can or will be willing to go through to write the piece. The film hit me extremely personally and at the first BNAT when it premiered I was in awe of it. I tend to watch it easily 3 to 4 times a year ever since. I'm dying to see this next one.
Hey Harry. Long-time reader, first-time writer. Just caught a sneak of P.T. Anderson's PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE here in Berkeley. Anderson did a Q&A but I couldn't stay-- had to work. Maybe someone else can provide the details. In the meantime, all I can do is RAVE about the MOST AMAZING movie of the year! Granted, the competition has been pretty weak, but my god this was good!
Not a big Adam Sandler fan talking here-- I liked WEDDING SINGER but could barely digest the thirty seconds of MR DEEDS I snuck in on, even with Winona in a skirt. Sandler is perfect here-- it's not so much his performance (he does a lot of his regular schtick) as the context, the environment, the world that Anderson builds for him, a role that fits him tighter than the skin on a weenie.There is no other actor working today, regardless of talent, who could play all the sides of this part; who could be equally convincing playing a shy, sensitive loner or a volcano of repressed rage who punches holes in walls... while always reminding us that it's all one person in there.
The rest of the cast is excellent as well-- Emily Watson (working with a considerably less developed part) hints just enough at the hurt in her character's past to make us understand what she sees in this guy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman clearly relishes the opportunity to project sheer physical menace after so many dough-boy roles.
Anderson's on his game as well: he's learned a lot of lessons from MAGNOLIA, not the least of which is the value of brevity-- if you told me last week that he was capable of bringing a picture in under an hour and a half, I'd probably have made some dumb joke about it being as likely as Sandler winning an Oscar. It pleases me no end that Anderson is remaining committed to shooting in full anamorphic scope (I believe the only other director doing so today is also named Anderson-- Wes, that is); the format is epecially good at evoking the empty vortex-like spaces that surround Sandler. P.T.'s use of color enters a whole new area here as well. As usual, there's lots and lots of visual symbolism-- he gets too cute only once, in a bit where Sandler punches a wall and the cuts on his knuckles actually spell something-- watching NIGHT OF THE HUNTER again, were we?
And then there's that song, the one from the trailer, which dominates the soundtrack in endless variations. "He Needs Me", by Harry Nilsson. Again, not a fan. Many angry personal issues unresolved to this day regarding Altman's POPEYE. P.T. has found a diamond in the rough-- as with casting Sandler, it's all about context. I'll never hear it the same way again. But I'll keep hearing it all the same, because when this picture goes into release I'm seeing it as many times as it takes to bring all my friends.
Do I really have to do the Fake Name thing?
OK, color me... Hammerhead.
