Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I was about to go to bed, and this dropped into the inbox. I am dying to see this, and I envy anyone who is going to Cannes next week. I hope to hear more reactions then, but for now... let’s hear it for today’s spy, THE BAD AMBASSADOR. English may not be his first language, but it sounds like maybe movies are:
hi,
So... Before saying evrything I have to say about Punch-Drunk Love... I need to warn you... My relationship with this film was very strong from the start... Not that i am involved in anyway in the making of the picture but... My love for Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler is quite fucking big....
I discovered Boogie Nights only 2 weeks before Magnolia... I had seen the Magnolia trailer... I was fucking impressed so i bought the BN dvd and watch it... Liked it... Very much. Then I saw Magnolia, and you see... Melora Walter's smile at the end... "you wanna go to a date with me?"... "I lost my gun today"... Jim Kuring not listenning to the answer he is looking for... Because the answer is being said by a kid... A old man talking about regrets... that scene has changed my life... when you realize that "regrets" is the worst word ever... and that they are built by you at every second... you change a few things... I did... I can't really tell how deep my love for Magnolia is... Because I am not sure i want to, and because it goes beyond words... I find the directing amazing, i find it couragous, daring, i am inspired and impressed by the way PTA uses its actors, this movie makes me laugh, makes me think.... This movie and PTA made me discover Jon Brion, Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Michael Penn... Big stuff... Magnolia made me understand we are all (made of stars) the same... I didn't know, and... it's a quite important thing, after all. Anyway, Magnolia is my favorite film ever, i consider it as the reflection of my soul...
And I love Adam Sandler... He makes me laugh, that cannot be controled... and i have love and respect for his films... The way it uses cliches to devellop his character... a naive child in a big bad world... but he gets the girl at the end. I think it is a beautiful way to see the world.
So there it is... Punch-drunk love... I won't give any spoilers... because... Well, i hate spoilers, and then.... There isn't quite any spoilers to give. It's a story about a real-life man falling in love with a taken-out-of-a-movie woman...
How to describe the film?
Well... It is NOT a comedy... Not at all... There is like 10 gags in the whole movie... Very funny ones... but... Magnolia was as funny as PDL is.... Boogie Nights is a real comedy compared to PDL. It's really hard to call it a "romantic comedy"... that would give a wrong idea... I mean... it's a romantic comedy if you think that Jim Kurring and Claudia Wilson Gattor's diner is pure romantism... I do... but if you consider that... Kate and Leopold or boys and girls are romantic comedys...
Let's just say that it is life... Hard... Painful but... Sometimes, thanks to some of the wonderful people aroung you... You laugh.... and... No matter your experience with love... no matter how self confident you are... no matter how disgraceful you body is... No matter how absurd some of your actions seem... No matter how ridiculous you feel sometimes... No matter how much you hate some things that are in you and that you cannot control...
Someday a woman will come and save you. And this day, you'll be stronger that anyone could ever imagine.
Paul Thomas Anderson believes in love... in LOVE... in a crazy, really romantic, love.. the one that saves you... the one that take you to the other side of the world and when you come back... it's a different you... Because there is a love in your life.
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE is about Barry Egan's life. Barry Egan is like Dirk Diggler, like every single person in magnolia. Someone you know is real, someone you know is in you.
It is directed as a documentary in the first scenes, it features quite a few amazing shots (including the most romantic one i have ever seen).
Now it's time to talk about the SANDMAN. Little sandoo.
ADAM SANDLER.
Paul Thomas Anderson thinks Adam Sandler, the WATERBOY, LITTLE NICKY, BILLY MADISON, BIG DADDY star is a genius, and wrote this part for him. I'll just say one thing: if one day, you love a movie that everybody hates, don't argue, just say: "if Paul Thomas Anderson had listenned to you, Punch-Drunk Love wouldn't exist." Barry Eggan is an extension of that what Sandler has played in all of his movies, but in a dramatic tone. And damn... I can't really say how incredible Adam Sandler is in this movie. I really can't. I sure hope i'll get a prize at Cannes. He is.. fragile... romantic... violent... He plays a guy that lacks self-confidence and experience everywhere.. and... you believe it, you share everyone of his hesitations.. Adam Sandler made an amazing job, and what's remarkable is that he doesn't seem to be ignoring his past... It's not Jim Carrey trying to make forget that before The Truman Show there was Ace Ventura II... It's Adam Sandler and a director that has seen its truth beyond appearances working together to continue the work previoulsy done but in a different tone... A new way to tell the same things.
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE is Anderson's best (his humanity, his gift to create characters, his taste for unconventionnal events or approch of the situations) mixed with Sandler's unsuspected best. The way PTA uses those extravagant things (harmonium is just an exemple, there is a lot of others wild details in the movie) to say something deep and important about the characters is his trademark, and a real pleasure. This film really doesn't have anything to envy to Magnolia in terms of crazy events.
Luis Guzman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Mary-Lynn Rajskub, in small roles, also make a wonderful job. Same can be said of Jon Brion, whose very particular music get the spectator in a strange and perfect mood. The references to Shoot the piano player or to The night of the hunter are lovely. Thinking about the way Anderson uses the 7 sisters is very intersting. Anderson himself has 7 sisters and brothers. Anderson's first thee movies dealed with the father figure, and there isn't here any allusion to the mother and the father. It's a quite interesting thing to think about. Because it is 1 hour and 31 minutes long, because the main character is in every single shot and the other ones are only there to build his personnaly, because it belongs to a specific genre, Punch-Drunk Love is very far from being as universal and as deep as Magnolia was but... Anderson doesn't repeat himself... Magnolia was the result of what he tried to say in Sydney and in Boogie Nights... but here he uses his talent, his humanity to say new things... because it belogns a little more to a specific genre... it has a few film noir or romantic comedy, or comedy touches.... Punch-Drunk Love looks like a new start for Paul Thomas Anderson. He has done two wonderful, cult movies, he has done one masterpiece, now it's time for remarkable, unusual, unique movies. Paul Thomas Anderson is now officially one of the very best directors in activy, and Adam Sandler now is one the most interesting, promising actors in the world.
The Bad Ambassador.
PS : please correct all english mistaked i've done, i am far from being bilinguist.
PPS : Paul Thomas Anderson, if you are reading this: thank you.
I decided not to translate his words any further. There’s a lot of passion in that review. I know that I’ve felt inspired each time I’ve seen one of PTA’s films, and that he is one of the young directors I most admire right now. His is a clear and individual voice, and the idea that he’s got a new film just around the corner makes me giddy.
Besides... I believe in that sort of LOVE, too. Sounds like something I’ve got to see.
"Moriarty" out.
