Where does Paul Thomas Anderson rank?

He's in that group with David Lynch, Lars von Trier and Alexander Payne for me. I really like them but they're not my favorite of all-time.

Brad Bird is one I always struggle to put in the list because his stuff is so different from everybody else's stuff. It's why I can't quite figure out to measure Spielberg against others, either.

 

Just from the Forties and Fifties:


Wyler

Minnelli

Huston

Kazan

Ford

Gene Kelly / Stanley Donen

Capra

 

He's made six movies in 16 years, so he can't be compared fairly to substantially more productive directors/writers. Moreover, the only movie he made that I would call "great" is Boogie Nights (maybe There Will Be Blood, too, but only because of Daniel Day Lewis).

 

I'd put Terence Malick on any list like this, and he's made what, half a dozen movies in 30 years?

 

I think he's interesting. Sometimes fascinating, even. I like him more as a director than as a writer. I think he's visuals are amazing. He gets great performances from actors. (His storytelling? Mixed.) But in terms of modern directors, I would much rather watch a Fincher film fives times than a PTA film twice. The same is probably true for Charlie Kaufman.

Boogie Nights might be the exception.

I think it's too early to say whether or not he's worthy of the all-time greats. That's a conversation to have 20 years from now.

But I was thinking the other day about this: Is he undoubtedly the best of his "generation?" Maybe it depends on how important you think traditional storytelling is in movie making.

This is probably his competition...



Fincher
Charlie Kaufman
Tarintino
Nolan
Wes Anderson
Darren Aronofsky
Peter Jackson
Alexander Payne
Sofia Coppola
Jason Reitman

 

Totally agree that I would call Boogie Nights "great." I think because of the subject matter a lot of people write it off. But the cast and the performances and the storyline were absolutely great.

That movie had great performances from John C. Reilly, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Don Cheadle all before they came to be hailed as top actors. Throw in the performances of Wahlberg (who really showed some chops in this flick -- his scenes in the music studio are some of my favorite scenes ever), Thomas Jane, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Bill Macy, Robert Ridgely and Burt Reynolds and there was some absolute magic. It's a shame Ridgely didn't live to see how great the finished product was.

Just a great flick. No two ways about it.

 

Did I miss the Coen Brothers somewhere on that list? Also, the more times I go back and watch movies made by Jackson, the more I believe he doesn't belong anywhere near a list like this.

 

The New Year's Eve party in Boogie Nights is among my favorite 10 or 15 minutes of any movie. It captures the whole world about to come crashing down.

And no other film combines its soundtrack well with what is going on.

 

I'd certainly include him on this list.

 

The Coen brothers - mentioned upstream - are 15 years older. I think DD was getting at the cohort more in line with PTA's contemporaries.

 

I had the Coens on my original list, but removed them when I looked it up and saw that they were born in 1954. Ang Lee and Danny Boyle were on the original list as well, but all were born in the 50s. I guess it's sort of an arbitrary cut off. Fincher was born in 1962 and Payne in 1961.

I feel like 1960 should at least be the cutoff, because if you dip into the 1950s, why stop there and not go back to the 1940s when Scorcese, Speilberg, Copplola, Allen and Malick were born?