Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha

"This volume will provide a comprehensive critical study of all of Paul Thomas Anderson's feature films, from Hard Eight (1996) to Licorice Pizza (2021), as well as his under-studied short films and music videos. As a filmmaker who came into prominence at the height of the Tarantino-driven Indiewood period, in which major studios gave unprecedented creative freedom to young directors, Anderson began his career as something of an enfant terrible, a defiant self-anointed auteur who wore his influences on his sleeve with such overstuffed epics as Boogie Nights and Magnolia. As Ethan Warren argues, however, Anderson's maximalist ethos eventual gave way to a more restrained period, in which both his directorial choices (such as camera movement, shot selection, and editing choices) and his characters abruptly switched from the earlier logorrheal mode to one much more restrained. Most recently, Warren sees Anderson as entering a new phases of his career in which elements of both postmodern intensified style anda more classical restraint are combined to plumb greater artist depths than Anderson was able to reach before. Warren covers these three periods of Anderson's career thematically, focusing on key areas of interest, such as the role of place (specificallyAnderson's native San Fernando valley), the hyper-masculine conflicts that frequently drive his narratives, and on the director's repeated simplifications and surface-level engagement with history. Interspersed with these critical chapters are ones that deal with other aspects of Anderson's career, including an analysis of his screenwriting methods through readings of early and unpublished or unproduced drafts of his screenplays; his career as a music video director for Fiona Apple and Haim; and a technical analysis of his consistent use of filmic alienation effects"--
This book provides the most complete account of Paul Thomas Anderson’s career to date, encompassing his evolution from a self-anointed auteur to one of his generation’s most distinctive voices. It is at once an unconventional primer on Anderson’s films and a provocative reframing of what makes his work so essential.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s evolution from a brash, self-anointed “Indiewood” auteur to one of his generation’s most distinctive voices has been one of the most remarkable career trajectories in recent film history. From early efforts to emulate his cinematic heroes to his increasingly singular late films, Anderson has created a body of work that balances the familiar and the strange, history and myth: viewers feel perpetually off balance, unsure of whether to expect a pitch-black joke or a moment of piercing emotional resonance.This book provides the most complete account of Anderson’s career to date, encompassing his varied side projects and unproduced material; his personal and professional relationships with directors such as Jonathan Demme, Robert Altman, and Robert Downey Sr.; and his work as a director of music videos for Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, and Haim. Ethan Warren explores Anderson’s recurring thematic preoccupations—the fraught dynamics of gender and religious faith, biological and found families, and his native San Fernando Valley—as well as his screenwriting methods and his relationship to his influences. Warren argues that Anderson’s films conjure up an alternate American history that exaggerates and elides verifiable facts in search of a heightened truth marked by a deeper level of emotional hyperrealism. This book is at once an unconventional primer on Anderson’s films and a provocative reframing of what makes his work so essential.