rs98762001 wrote:What I don't like is the fact that his films don't really have a soul... There's not really a truly rich characterization in any of Anderson's movies... There are some great one-note stereotypes ... but any time he tries to get truly human on us, he fails miserably
Yeah, I can see what you're saying on this point. That's pretty much the exact reaction I had to
Magnolia, because for all its attempts to illustrate anguish, they never quite ring true in any other fashion other than hollow reflections and empty clichés. Actually, that's not true for all the characters and storylines, just for far too many of them for me to excuse its artificial contrived tone. Maybe it's just the fact that, despite its attempts to stay true to its characters, I can't stand the rampant air of victimization in the film. It's a great film for just watching technique though.
rs98762001 wrote: ...but any time he tries to get truly human on us, he fails miserably (thinking particularly of Tom Cruise's embarrassing emotional moments in Magnolia).
I'm not so certain he fails miserably every time. Hoffman's embarrassing breakdown in
Boogie Nights feels genuine... until PTA lets the beat run a tad too long and you start to witness the seams fall apart slightly. I think that's part of my problem with his methods. It's as if he's overcompensating for his lack of genuine emotion, so he stretches his emotional scenes too far. Of course, sometimes the effort works since it's impressive to watch actors being so unconsciously gaudy and oblivious to their own embarrassing appearance. I think that's why the Cruise scenes in
Magnolia work for me. It's interesting to see a man who controls (maybe that should be "controlled" given recent events) his public image so stringently, embarrass himself so openly by displaying his torment over his own relationship with his own father (I don't really care if he denies it, it's so freaking obvious the entire relationship is based upon Cruise's own family history). I find the same appeal in watching Sandler breakdown in front of his brother-in-law in
Punch Drunk Love after confessing he doesn't like himself very much.
rs98762001 wrote:I for one was completely unconvinced by the romantic entanglements in Punch Drunk Love.
What I love about
Punch Drunk Love is that it embraces its artifice so openly. The romantic entanglements are completely absurd and Barry's trials and obstacles are preposterous, but that same lunacy and pretense is what makes it feel genuine in the end. It's as if PTA abandoned his struggle to honestly display typical emotions (pain, anguish, heartache) and just decided to concentrate on two extremes - uncontrolled rage and nonsensical love, and for me that decision completely works. That same decision to admit its own pretense is what is missing in earnest attempts such as
Boogie Nights and
Magnolia. It appears to me that we aren't really supposed to be convinced that the romantic entanglements between the characters within
Punch Drunk Love are authentic or legitimate, but instead we're merely asked to celebrate the cinematic expression of that rush we find in quick-tempered reactionary violence and that illogical sudden immature crush that (hopefully) grips us occasionally, and then perhaps accept that the two reactions are somewhat tied together.