New Cult Canon: Punch Drunk Love

[GilloD]

http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/the_new_cult_canon_punch_drunk

For me, Punch-Drunk Love marked the moment when Anderson threw away the stylistic crutches of forbears like Martin Scorsese and Robert Altman, and came into his own as an original filmmaker. That doesn't mean he's discarded these and other influences altogether, which isn't something he could or would want to do. But Punch-Drunk Love has a unique texture that's unmistakably Anderson's, marked by a wired, coked-up intensity and a yen for discord. It's a film that sets viewers on edge from the start, almost daring you not to like it. And considering how shamelessly Sandler's other films work to ingratiate themselves to the audience, that alone is an achievement.

The Lena character really shouldn't work, for the reasons most MPDGs don't work, because she offers up the full force of her charisma (and patience) and doesn't get back what she puts in. Yet the casting here is key: Watson's signature role in Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves, as a deeply religious woman who devotes herself to her husband with equal fervor, emphasizes her childlike innocence even when it's tarnished by repeated degradation. Watson projects that innocence again in Punch-Drunk Love and recognizes it in Sandler's Barry, which forgives him a lot of sins throughout the film, like when he smashes up a restaurant bathroom on their first date, or abandons her at a hospital to seek revenge on the men who put her there. Their relationship is pure romantic fantasy, but they make an odd sort of sense together. How many other couples could share pillow talk like this?

PDL is one of my all time favorite films. I've never seen a film that is, in alternate turns, so light and yet so intense. It's the stuff of fantasy and yet the stuff of our way down deep guts, the delightful whimsy of love and terrible pains of reality. I adore it. The scene where they meet in the archway of the Pink hotel in Hawaii is bar-none my favorite image in the history of film.

[MrAngryFace]

SPANGLISH!

[Phoenix Dark]

I loved TWBB. Gonna have to check out more of his stuff

[Raban]

Punch Drunk Love is one of my all-time favorite movies as well. GilloD pretty much hit the nail on the head about it.

It manages to feel like a lighter movie but has so much intensity packed in, it's unlike any other movie I've seen. And no, Adam Sandler will never again achieve the kind of acting he exhibited in PDL, it was too fucking good to be true.

[Phoenix Dark]

just watched the trailer. emily watson looks way better than she did in The Proposition ha. she's still so average looking but she seems cool

very strange trailer. like comedy suspense or some shit

[Raban]

just watched the trailer. emily watson looks way better than she did in The Proposition ha. she's still so average looking but she seems cool

very strange trailer. like comedy suspense or some shit

AVERAGE? EMILY WATSON IS FUCKING HOT AS HELL.

DANIEL CRAIG WITH TITS

[MyNameIsMethodis]

I love the small little hints thrown throughout the movie like

spoiler (click to show/hide)

when he punches the piano and the camera shows his hand and in it are red marks spelling "LOVE"

[close]

Its not my favorite PTA movie (that would be Boogie Nights), but it is a great one. And the music is amazing.

[Robo]

I'm not sure if I saw this on evilbore or not, but here's an excellent little article about some of the symbolic imagery, color usage, and filming techniques going on in PDL: http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/35/pt_anderson.html

It adds a whole new level of sophistication that a casual viewer may not immediately pick up on or may not immediately understand.