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The Valley Plays Itself
Three of Paul Thomas Anderson’s first four movies take place in the San Fernando Valley, where he and I both grew up. This alone probably made me a mark for PTA fandom, as no other director has ever...
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A Golden State: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Secret, Sprawling, Multi-Film History...
Is it going too far to say that Southern California is to Paul Thomas Anderson what North Mississippi was to William Faulkner? Possibly. So maybe we’re better off playing it safe and going with...
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The 42 Greatest Musical Moments in ‘Boogie Nights,’ Ranked
With apologies to American Graffiti, Mean Streets, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Dazed and Confused, Boogie Nights is my favorite “awesome scenes set to equally awesome songs” movie. I can’t think...
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‘Punch-Drunk’ History: How Paul Thomas Anderson Saved (and Ruined) Adam Sandler
Laugh all you want — Adam Sandler has never stopped trying to be serious. Take a look at that prodigious IMDb page of his and you’ll notice — nestled among the orderly diminishing returns of his Happy...
View ArticleThere Will Be Pod: A Conversation About the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson
Chris Ryan and Sean Fennessey talk to Chuck Klosterman, Molly Lambert, and Alex Pappademas about the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. Listen to the podcast here....
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Good Disintegration: Paul Thomas Anderson and Robert Altman’s Special...
If you think about it, what director other than Paul Thomas Anderson could have been the first to adapt Thomas Pynchon for film? Pynchon is the high priest of postmodernism, after all, whose gargantuan...
View ArticleA Brief Oral History of Dirk’s Diggler, by Mark Wahlberg
You can read Grantland’s full oral history of Boogie Nights here. Mark Wahlberg: I show up at this effects house in the Valley. And I have to stand there and take off my clothes. And they start...
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IV Drip: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Postlapsarian Comedy ‘Inherent Vice’
What a word, “decline.” It’s directional: downward. It’s deferential: no, thank you. It connotes judgment, disappointment, and death. Movies can be about decline or symptomatic of it. Paul Thomas...
View Article‘B.S. Report’: Bill and House’s Top 20 ‘Boogie Nights’ Characters
Bill Simmons and Joe House count down their controversial top-20 Boogie Nights character rankings. Listen to the podcast here. Subscribe to the B.S. Report on iTunes and check out our podcasts page.
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