{"id":3701,"date":"2009-02-10T19:08:39","date_gmt":"2009-02-11T03:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3701"},"modified":"2009-02-13T16:39:07","modified_gmt":"2009-02-14T00:39:07","slug":"punch-drunk-love-paul-thomas-anderson-2002-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=3701","title":{"rendered":"Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Byron Potau<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"Punch-DrunkWhile maybe not the typical love story you\u2019re used to, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s offbeat Punch Drunk Love<\/a><\/em> is a wonderfully unique and beautifully strange film that cannot help but charm you to pieces.\u00a0 With Valentine\u2019s Day coming up, this is a great film for those who are a little left of center and can stand a fresh and funny look at love.<\/p>\n

Sandler plays Barry Egan, a self-employed small business owner whose seven nagging sisters have left him shy, awkward, alone, and with a tremendous amount of pent up anger which comes out spontaneously and often hilariously.\u00a0 Barry\u2019s loneliness leads him to call a phone sex line one night.\u00a0 The next day, one of Barry\u2019s sisters introduces him to her coworker who fancies him and asks him out.\u00a0 Despite some hitches, they like each other, but the phone sex call comes back to haunt him in a terrifying and unpredictable way.<\/p>\n

Despite this unnerving plot twist, the film is painfully endearing and hilarious, and a perfect fit on Valentine\u2019s Day when it is so important to find a fresh twist on love.\u00a0\u00a0 Filled with fantastic symbolism, out of tune harmonium, and motifs, and wonderfully vibrant colored montage interludes using the artwork of Jeremy Blake, this film is an incredibly underrated masterpiece. \u00a0From Robert Elswit\u2019s cinematography with its strange and intrusive colors, to the incredibly creative sound and sound editing, to the wonderful music score by Jon Brion, to an inspired use of Shelly Duvall\u2019s rendition of \u201cHe Needs Me\u201d from Robert Altman\u2019s Popeye, simply every aspect of this film is absolutely brilliant and serves to make this, arguably, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s best film.\u00a0 The acting is great with a splendidly dead pan Luis Guzman as Lance, one of Barry\u2019s employees; an over the top Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the Mattress Man and head of the phone sex line; and Emily Watson as Barry\u2019s love interest, the sweet and lovely Lina. \u00a0Yet it is Sandler who really impresses by finding the comedy from within the character rather than his typical overacting.\u00a0 Lastly, it is Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s brilliantly hysterical and quirky script and exceptionally inventive direction that makes it all come together.\u00a0 This is an incredible cinematic treat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Byron Potau.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. While maybe not the typical love story you\u2019re used to, Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s offbeat Punch Drunk Love is a wonderfully unique and beautifully strange film that cannot help but charm you to pieces.\u00a0 With Valentine\u2019s Day coming up, this is a great film for those who are a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}