Written by Gabe Paganucci
Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) has a unique approach to cinema— a visceral way of looking at the world translates to films that are difficult to look away from. His filmography demands your attention and is in many ways the paradigm of cinema. It is for this reason that his many works are worshipped as cult classics, much like the cults in his films The Master and Inherent Vice. It’s that precise parallel that is the reason I’m writing to you today.
See, it has become a staple of cinema to establish a cinematic universe, much like the Marvel films did back in 2009. Similarly, Quentin Tarantino often hints at the idea of his films being in the same universe, as brands of cigarettes and burger joints intertwine throughout his films. PTA does not do this. However, it’s long been a habit of filmmakers to be in conversation with each other. When visiting the Criterion Closet, a film closet in New York housing every movie the company has every distributed, Malcolm Washington identifies this dialogue between film artists when he takes the work of Agnès Varda, saying that,
“You can’t talk about Jacques (Demy) without talking about Ms. Varda. One of the great film love stories. These two incredible artists. One thing I love about film is the dialogue between artists, and not only between each other, [but also] Michel Legrand tying them together in so many ways. But if you look at Umbrellas of Cherbourg and you look at Do the Right Thing, you see artists in dialogue.”
This is a way of moving through a work, the act of being in conversation engages you with the artist, making watching a film a much more of an active performance rather than a passive one. Paul Thomas Anderson participates in this dialogue, like when the cultural zeitgeist was shifted when Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came out. This shift fueled filmmakers to make period pieces about making films, like David Fincher’s Mank or Damien Chazelle’s Babylon. That trend even carries on to 2025 with films like Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague. Of course Once Upon a Time in Hollywood wasn’t the genesis of films about filmmaking, one could argue Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 was, but it did prove to studios that this was a profitable market. It has not been directly stated that the film inspired PTA to write his own love letter to LA when he made Licorice Pizza, but the identical methodically lackadaisical plots of these LA hangout films at the very least proves that this was a proven place of profit and comfort for studios.
Paul Thomas Anderson also appears to be in dialogue with himself. If his films were people, they’d be talking over coffee and cigarettes, much like the opening of his directorial debut Hard Eight. PTA says, “If you don’t know what you’re writing, just put two people in a coffee shop and have them start talking, and it will eventually figure itself out.” That’s exactly what PTA is doing with his films. He’s figuring himself out through his work. So let’s start where he got his start. Boogie Nights.
Boogie Nights is all about capturing intimacy in a raw and untethered way. Main character Eddie Adams turned adult film star Dirk Diggler wants to create a porn that engrosses the viewer so unapologetically that it grips the viewer even after the moment of lethargic release. The same pursuit of intensity is seen in films like Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, which provides arousal without even really showing anything, just by simply telling. So that’s who PTA is in conversation with here—films about arousal without just simply delivering porn. This is a repeated motif within his films, and is explored differently in each. It reaches its pinnacle in Phantom Thread, where the intimacy captured is wrong but also raw and untethered. It feels as if what we are witnessing unfold is the catastrophe of rivaling arousals, put so eloquently into dialogue. Intimacy also appears abruptly in films like Inherent Vice and Magnolia. Just a single shot of two characters engaging in the same intimate action that got Dirk Diggler famous in that jaw-clenching scene of his first shoot.
Perhaps I’m thinking about this too much, or perhaps not enough. See, another signature motif in this early era of PTA’s work is this fascination with freak accidents. In a scene in the later half of Boogie Nights, a shootout goes down that kills everyone in the store except for Don Cheadle’s character. This freak accident fascination is elaborated on in Magnolia when accidents happen over and over again, climaxing with frogs falling from the sky like a plague from the Bible (the most unpredictable of freak accidents). PTA later embellishes this by tying a freak accident into the core part of H.W.’s character in There Will Be Blood. The accident renders H.W.deaf which informs his character development for years to come.
That brings me to the last PTA fascination I’ve identified, which is characters with mental illness. Of course, there’s H.W. mentioned above, but also Barry from Punch Drunk Love who is a person with highly functioning autism. The same could be said for Woodcock from Phantom Thread, but in a very different way. If his breakfast is ruined, he’s not himself for the rest of the day. Finally, PTA’s latest film and new release, One Battle After Another. The protagonist Bob is paranoid, which stems from PTSD and borders on schizophrenia at times. Nevertheless, the film’s core essence is about how he comes through as a father despite his hardships. This is where PTA’s fascination with mental health reaches its height: by creating a character who has an irrational and off putting way of interacting with the world but still manages to touch our hearts. In the words of Karsten Runquist, “it’s a film that took a career to make,” and that’s what makes it so important. Instead of responding to another filmmaker, Paul Thomas Anderson’s responding to himself, building on himself, and finding himself within the film. It’s a journey of self discovery, and we are lucky enough to be along for the ride.
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