843 Punch-Drunk Love

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Magic Hate Ball · #26 Post by **Magic Hate Ball** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 5:35 pm

As a side note, this movie goes extremely well if you do a double feature with Requiem For A Dream first.

noelbotevera · #27 Post by **noelbotevera** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:53 am

Magic Hate Ball wrote:Requiem For A Dream

Not a big fan.

Magic Hate Ball · #28 Post by **Magic Hate Ball** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:18 am

There's something ethereal about this film. Light and tone are used constantly; you can feel the cold morning air when Barry first finds the Harmonium, the warm Hawaiian light and the coolness under the arch. The sound and cinematography crunch together and pressure the viewer into feeling just as harassed as Barry. I have nothing but praise for it.

noelbotevera wrote:
Magic Hate Ball wrote:Requiem For A Dream
Not a big fan.

I quite like it. It jerks me around and overwhelms me, and that's about all I ask from it.

#29 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 2:23 am

You should ask more

Magic Hate Ball · #30 Post by **Magic Hate Ball** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 3:17 am

domino harvey wrote:You should ask more

I do. But from that specific movie, I don't. If ever I need to feel like I'm being beaten up in a washing machine, I turn to that. It's a purely emotional relationship I have with it. I connect myself to the characters, and then get torn apart. I suppose it's why sobbing housewives attach themselves to such dreck like All My Children. It's a quick emotional fix.

PDL is something else entirely, but I watch it for a similar reason; to be emotionally contorted. It's weird and delightful, and also dark and unhappy. It looks how I see life; over-lit and chaotic, with everybody asking questions and everybody trying to make things work. It's also like going to a Rothko exhibit, if we are to discuss cinematography. Not only do the Jeremy Blake bits live and breathe, but every shot exudes its own life. The double shot of Lena coming up the path at the hotel, Barry hiding in his warehouse behind the wall from Lena, the two of them in silouhette at the very end. It's a cartoon charicature of life that is more lifelike than many dramas that claim to be just that.

Of course, I may just be oddly receptive to mood-altering films.

noelbotevera · #31 Post by **noelbotevera** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:11 am

domino harvey wrote:You should ask more

A touch less hysteria, p'raps. Amazing that Burstyn did this, then did that simple, unaffected turn in James Gray's The Yards.

bkimball · #32 Post by **bkimball** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 2:21 am

I watched Punch-Drunk Love again for the first time in a while, and I forget about how well Barry's world of unrest is portrayed so well. As I am someone who had a nervous breakdown quenched by romance, I feel a strong connection to how Barry feels calm and strength after falling in love.

One of the many other things I love about the film is that there are so many sweet and yet dry humorous moments that take place throughout the entire thing.

Does anyone have recommendations of romantic comedies that are similar in tone?

Macintosh · #33 Post by **Macintosh** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 5:08 am

bkimball wrote:Does anyone have recommendations of romantic comedies that are similar in tone?

Hmmm, try Minnie and Moskowitz or Buffalo 66 perhaps. I see a similar style of humor (rather dark and sardonic actually). Also Brewster McCloud too.

jaredsap · #34 Post by **jaredsap** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:40 pm

Does anyone have recommendations of romantic comedies that are similar in tone?

JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO, which is great and unfairly maligned, comes as close as anything imo.

Macintosh · #35 Post by **Macintosh** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 3:58 pm

jaredsap wrote:
Does anyone have recommendations of romantic comedies that are similar in tone?
JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO, which is great and unfairly maligned, comes as close as anything imo.

Are you effen kidding me? Maybe it's similar in tone but it's a TOM HANKS/MEG RYAN movie!

#36 Post by **Matt** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 4:07 pm

Macintosh wrote:Are you effen kidding me? Maybe it's similar in tone but it's a TOM HANKS/MEG RYAN movie!

And this is an ADAM SANDLER movie! What's your point?

noelbotevera · #37 Post by **noelbotevera** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:04 pm

Joe vs. the Volcano, sure--completely neglected and misunderstood stylized rom-com, even more strikingly stylized than Anderson's.

I'll cop to that.

Marcel Gioberti · #38 Post by **Marcel Gioberti** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:06 pm

Amen...people who recognize Joe Dante's genius are smart people indeed.

noelbotevera · #39 Post by **noelbotevera** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:16 pm

It's by John Patrick Shanley, who's had a spotty career. But that's strange--I've often thought of it as a Dante film myself. Borrows something of his spirit, p'raps?

Marcel Gioberti · #40 Post by **Marcel Gioberti** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:24 pm

noelbotevera wrote:It's by John Patrick Shanley, who's had a spotty career. But that's strange--I've often thought of it as a Dante film myself. Borrows something of his spirit, p'raps?

Now I'm tortured as to why in the hell I thought that...

Cinesimilitude · #41 Post by **Cinesimilitude** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:16 pm

Marcel Gioberti wrote:
noelbotevera wrote:It's by John Patrick Shanley, who's had a spotty career. But that's strange--I've often thought of it as a Dante film myself. Borrows something of his spirit, p'raps?
Now I'm tortured as to why in the hell I thought that...

Joe Dante, Dante's Peak, Volcano. Joe Volcano. Joe vs. the Volcano.

maybe?

noelbotevera · #42 Post by **noelbotevera** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:26 am

Puff and piffle; what's a mistaken director between posters in agreement? Dante's a wonderful filmmaker, much better than the ostensible filmmaker this thread is devoted to, and it's an honor to have a film mistaken as his work, I think.

#43 Post by **Jeff** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:13 am

I never made that connection before, but Joe is indeed the long-lost cousin of Punch-Drunk. What a great recommendation.

For those who aren't familiar with the awesomeness that is Joe Versus the Volcano, it has its own thread here.

Macintosh · #44 Post by **Macintosh** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 3:37 am

Jeff wrote:I never made that connection before, but Joe is indeed the long-lost cousin of Punch-Drunk. What a great recommendation.

For those who aren't familiar with the awesomeness that is Joe Versus the Volcano, it has its own thread here.

Alright, i always like to be surprised by something i have low expectations for, so it's just been BUMPED to the top of the Netflix queue.

#45 Post by **zedz** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 10:40 pm

Timely retrospection by Matt Zoller Seitz in the NYT in coverage of a MoMI retro:

[quote]Punch-Drunk Love

Mr. Anderson himself did move ahead, conspicuously, with the romantic comedy Punch-Drunk Love (2002). A truly strange movie told mostly in long, slow, unbroken camera moves, interspersed with abstract color patterns and partly scored with a harmonium, it was also the first of Mr. Anderson's features that concentrated on one character: an emotionally constipated, lovestruck man-child (Adam Sandler) who had no on-screen father, and who struggled to assert his own identity in the presence of his domineering sisters.

Like the filmmaker's previous efforts, Punch-Drunk Love paid homage to past masters, including Mr. Altman, whom Mr. Anderson honored by scoring a daft travel montage with He Needs Me,

#46 Post by **domino harvey** » Sun Jan 06, 2008 11:10 pm

davidhare wrote:How finely these two movies (I havent seen the newbie yet) seem to resonate with PTA's first film the absolutely wonderful Hard Eight/Sydney. This great little movie seems to be completely overlooked in the current discussions.

It's a great film, choosing between his films is like choosing children. I used to watch the moneycard scam section on a constant loop.
He's basically the only director whose work I enjoyed equally pre and post discovering film as art.

exte · #47 Post by **exte** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:41 am

domino harvey wrote:
davidhare wrote:How finely these two movies (I havent seen the newbie yet) seem to resonate with PTA's first film the absolutely wonderful Hard Eight/Sydney. This great little movie seems to be completely overlooked in the current discussions.
It's a great film, choosing between his films is like choosing children. I used to watch the moneycard scam section on a constant loop.
He's basically the only director whose work I enjoyed equally pre and post discovering film as art.

Wow. (And wow for watching/catching Sydney pre-art phase!)

#48 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:44 am

I taped it off Showtime in 8th or 9th grade! I used to obsessively read Entertainment Weekly as a kid and would try to watch anything they or Ebert liked-- Hard Eight was one of the first to really wow my young mind.

miless · #49 Post by **miless** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:49 am

domino harvey wrote:I taped it off Showtime in 8th or 9th grade! I used to obsessively read Entertainment Weekly as a kid and would try to watch anything they or Ebert liked-- Hard Eight was one of the first to really wow my young mind.

depending upon when you were in 8th or 9th grade... Happiness sure could have screwed with you.

#50 Post by **domino harvey** » Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:12 am

miless wrote:
domino harvey wrote:I taped it off Showtime in 8th or 9th grade! I used to obsessively read Entertainment Weekly as a kid and would try to watch anything they or Ebert liked-- Hard Eight was one of the first to really wow my young mind.
depending upon when you were in 8th or 9th grade... Happiness sure could have screwed with you.

Ha! Pretty sure I saw and loved that one around the same time. At least by high school. I remember trying to get people to sit thru Citizen Ruth during this same time period, now that went over real well in the Bible belt.
Maybe this should be a split thread: When did you start watching adult movies? (EDIT: That should garner some off topic conversation of its own-- mods finesse that)

843 Punch-Drunk Love

Forthcoming: Punch-Drunk Love