Sex and the City fans were shocked when, in the very first episode of And Just Like That…, HBO’s new sequel to the beloved series, Chris Noth’s Mr. Big (SPOILER ALERT) died of a heart attack after spending 45 minutes on a Peloton. When a friend of actor/writer/producer/director Zoe Lister-Jones, who had worked with Noth in the past, asked what she thought about Big’s shocking offing, her response boiled down to three words: “F*ck Mr. Big.”
“Last week, my friend asked me how I felt about Mr. Big’s death on And Just Like That, and I said, honestly, I felt relieved. He asked why and I told him it was because I couldn’t separate the actor from the man, and the man is a sexual predator. My friend was alarmed at my word choice. And to be honest, so was I. I hadn’t thought of this man for so many years, and yet there was a virility to my language that came from somewhere deep and buried.”
Lister-Jones, 39, went on to explain that when she was in her twenties she worked at a club in New York City that Noth owned and occasionally visited. During the times that he was onsite, she noted that “he was consistently sexually inappropriate” with one of her co-workers.
That same year, Lister-Jones booked a guest spot on an episode of Law & Order, which just so happened to coincide with Noth’s return to the series after time spent filming Sex and the City. “He was drunk on set,” she wrote. “During my interrogation scene he had a 22 oz. of beer under the table that he would drink in between takes. In one take he got close to me, sniffed my neck, and whispered, ‘You smell good.’ I didn’t say anything. My friend at the club never said anything. It’s so rare that we do.”
Lister-Jones’ accusations came just hours after The Hollywood Reporter published two separate accounts of women coming forward to say they had been assaulted by Noth. The two women, who were identified by the pseudonyms Lily and Zoe (the latter just seems to be a coincidence), do not know each other but both described strikingly similar situations in which they claim to have been sexually violated by Noth.
In both cases, the women described being forcibly assaulted by Noth, with one of them referring to it as a “rape.” Though the events took place nearly a decade apart, one in 2004 the other in 2015, both women were reportedly triggered by recent publicity for And Just Like That. Reading their stories is was what led Lister-Jones to come forward:
“My experiences are small in comparison to the accounts of assault that have so bravely been shared today. But navigating predation at any level is a burden all women have to bear. And for the most part there is no accountability, and no consequence.
Chris Noth capitalized on the fantasy that women believed Mr. Big represented. And those fantasies often create environments where emotional confusion thrives. Perhaps Big’s death is the communal grief we must all face in mourning that fantasy, in releasing that male archetype we as women have been fed through popular culture, and confronting its dark and pervasive underbelly.”
Face masks have been a necessary (and potentially life-saving) part of our lives for nearly two years, but some people are still trying to “own” the system. Florida man Adam Jenne has been banned from flying United Airlines after wearing a red thong as a face covering while boarding a flight this week to protest the mask mandate. “COVID doesn’t know that we’re at cruising altitude. It’s stupid. The whole thing is theater,” the guy said, adding, “Hopefully, Spirit Airlines has a better sense of humor tomorrow.”
The Daily Show host Trevor Noah is not amused by Jenne’s sense of humor. “While we are being reminded about just how serious this pandemic is, there are still some people who are taking it just a little more lightly,” he said before playing a clip of Jenne comparing himself to civil rights icons like Rosa Parks. “Rosa Parks? My man, don’t be so modest! You’re more than Rosa Parks! If anything, you’re the Martin Luther King of white dudes comparing themselves to Black heroes for no reason.”
Noah thinks sometimes conservatives make a good point: “America shouldn’t be teaching the history of racism in schools, because then at least white people wouldn’t know who to compare themselves to after they get kicked off of airplanes for doing dumb sh*t,” he joked. You can watch The Daily Show clip above.
This year’s been another rough one so far, but there’s some excellent news: a ton of quality TV recently surfaced, and there’s more where that came from, especially from Netflix. Front and center this week is a show with an intense fandom that’s been looking forward to the bewigged Henry Cavill making his return as Geralt of Rivia, who’s tasked with hunting all of the monsters on The Continent. The season’s been two years in the making due to you-know-what, but the wait has been worth it. This season will please fans of the last batch of episodes, and it might even brings some new viewers onboard as well because all of those confusing timelines are no more.
Elsewhere, there’s plenty of Christmas related content coming your way, along with a real estate reality show that will make you long for warmer temperatures and a bigger bank account. A renowned Italian filmmaker brings his latest project to the streamer, too, and there’s an adorable movie that follows an ocean creature voiced by Rose Byrne. Who’d have thought that was ever possible? Let’s rally round our TVs and get ready to boot 2021 into oblivion. Let’s also get medieval and start knocking out those overstuffed queues. It’s binge-and-catchup-time, so happy viewing, y’all.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.
The Witcher: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 12/17)
It’s time to go on a swashbuckling rampage through destiny, and this one is a banger. Geralt of Rivia returns for more monster hunting on The Continent. Ciri and Geralt have finally found each other (in a paternal way), and she’s clearly now in training mode. The show’s got a lot to live up to, given that it defied expectations during its debut, and Henry Cavill has also revealed that his character will somehow be less grumpy this time around. Geralt will talk more, and maybe he’ll tell humble bard Jaskier to shove off again, but he will have to enlist the guy for help, so get ready for another banger in the process. Meanwhile, Yennifer’s out on her own, and not doing so well after the Battle of Sodden, as she’s apparently working her way back toward Geralt’s neck of the woods. Killing Eve‘s Kim Bodnia will portray Vesimir, Geralt’s mentor, and Game Of Thrones‘ Kristofer Hivju will wear highly unflattering prosthetics. Good times!
Academy Award winner Paulo Sorrentino (The Young Pope) returns to HBO with this story of tragedy and unexpected joys, along with how fates intertwine. Sorrentino’s telling this story from his own hometown (Naples), so expect a deeply personal (and of course, beautiful) story, even though ultimately, it’s a story about young Fabietto Schisa and the arrival of a football legend on the scene.
Selling Tampa: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming 12/15)
Florida real estate takes center stage when an all Black, all female real estate firm decides to take charge of the Suncoast. Ambitions will run wild with everyone competing to broker the most lavish waterfront homes of all. Live (vicariously) a little.
Puff: Wonders Of The Reef (Netflix film streaming 12/17)
Rose Byrne narrates this story about a baby puffer fish who lives in a coral reef. This, of course, presents a life of great physical beauty, but it’s also a survival tale, given that he’s tinier than a human fingernail at the beginning of this film. Ultimately, this film brings us into a diverse ecosystem and teaches us about how all species in the vast oceans are somehow interconnected, no matter how different from each other they might seem.
This film revolves around three brothers in three very different relationships, and the twist here is that they’re all competing to be the first to fulfill their mother’s Christmas list. Please let this go off the rails, repeatedly.
A California Christmas: City Lights (Netflix film streaming 12/16)
It wouldn’t be the holiday season without some cheesy holiday movies, and this story revolves around a beautiful couple who runs a dairy farm and winery and loves life. However, they must trek back to the city due to unavoidable circumstances, and that threatens their romance as well.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 12/13 Eye in the Sky
Avail. 12/14 The Future Diary
Russell Howard: Lubricant
StarBeam: Beaming in the New Year
Avail. 12/15 Black Ink Crew New York: Seasons 3-4 The Challenge: Season 12 The Challenge: Season 25 Elite Short Stories: Phillipe Caye Felipe
The Giver
The Hand of God
Masha and the Bear: Nursery Rhymes: Season 1 Part 2 Masha and the Bear: Season 5 Selling Tampa
Teen Mom 2: Seasons 3-4
Avail. 12/16 A California Christmas: City Lights
A Naija Christmas
Aggretsuko: Season 4 Darkest Hour
Puff: Wonders of the Reef
Avail. 12/17 Fast & Furious Spy Racers: Season 6: Homecoming The Witcher: Season 2
Avail. 12/18 Bulgasal: Immortal Souls
Oldboy
Avail. 12/19 What Happened in Oslo Avail. 12/12 JAPAN SINKS: People of Hope: Season 1 (episode 9)
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
In case you’re unaware, having the No. 1 song in the UK on the week of Christmas is considered a prestigious honor, so much so that it’s the subject of much speculation and conversation every year. The past few years, those conversations have been dominated by popular UK YouTube personality LadBaby, who has had the top song in each of the past three years thanks to his parody covers with lyrics focused on sausage rolls, a beloved UK dish.
From 2018 to 2020, he topped the charts with, respectively, versions of “We Built This City” by Starship, “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” (re-titled “I Love Sausage Rolls”) by the Arrows (but most famously performed by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts), and “Don’t Stop Believin’” (re-titled “Don’t Stop Me Eatin’”) by Journey.
Now, he’s looking for a four-peat, and he got Ed Sheeran and Elton John to help out and join him on “Sausage Rolls For Everyone,” which is a reworked version of Sheeran and John’s new holiday single “Merry Christmas.” Considering that “Merry Christmas” is the current No. 1 song in the UK and that LadBaby has an established history of holiday success, it wouldn’t be surprising to see “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” hit the top spot come Christmas.
If the track does manage to do that, it will be a historic moment that makes LadBaby the only artist to ever have four consecutive Christmas No. 1s. He’s currently just one of three artists who has done it three years in a row, alongside The Beatles and The Spice Girls.
Speaking with the Daily Star (as Celebretainment notes), Hoyle said the collaboration was Sheeran’s idea. He also noted, “It was a surreal moment when we met Elton, and I was overcome with emotion when he started singing because it’s Sir Elton John. I went, ‘Oh my God, that’s his voice singing about sausage rolls, this is insane!’ It was a real moment. Me and my wife stood there and the whole room went silent. And he did it in one take, unlike me, who had to do it about 40 times. Talking about it just gives me goosebumps.”
The song, by the way, is a charity single, with proceeds going towards British food bank The Trussell Trust.
Watch the “Sausage Rolls For Everyone” video above.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
2021 is finally winding down, and on the final episode of the year, Steve and Ian are celebrating with the return of Indiecasties, the semi-annual Indiecast awards show. Who will take home this year’s Indiecasties, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in indie rock? Tune in to this week’s episode to find out! Included in this installment of the Indiecasties are awards for:
“Why Isn’t This On Your List” Award: Consensus Album That is Truly Overrated
Nominees: Lana Del Rey’s Blue Bannisters, Kacey Musgraves’ Star-Crossed, Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, Iceage’s Seek Shelter, Lorde’s Solar Power, and more.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 70 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.
Lil Durk has collaborated with a number of artists in the music industry, especially since widened his audience last year through well-performing projects and songs with Drake, Lil Baby, and more. He’s worked with both rappers and singers, but tonight marks a new first for him.
For the first time in his career, Durk finds himself in the country lane with quite the controversial artist: Morgan Wallen. Earlier this year, Wallen found himself in heavy controversy after he was caught on video using a racial slur while he was out with friends. Despite that, Wallen and Durk joined forces for their new song “Broadway Girls.”
Knowing what Wallen did earlier this year, one would believe that the song would stir up a bit of controversy, but most of the reactions it received on social media have been warm and in support of it. For what it’s worth, the artists’ demographics don’t have much obvious overlap and some may be unaware of what Wallen did (or unbothered), but in the end, it’s still a questionable collaboration.
Despite this, the song is here and altogether it amounts to a rap and country crossover record focused on women who only pay attention to Wallen and Durk because of their money and status in the music world.
You can view some of the reactions to the song below and press play on the track above.
country and rap listeners rn after Morgan Wallen and Lil Durk dropped Broadway Girls pic.twitter.com/nSqKJmW6rZ
When it comes to rappers in Atlanta, Lil Baby and Future are certainly at the top of the scene. Lil Baby’s success came within the past few years thanks to his success with projects like Harder Than Ever and My Turn as well as collaborations with the likes of Drake, Gunna, Young Thug, and Lil Durk. Future’s success, on the other hand, goes back more than a decade and it’s made him more than worthy of a place on the Mt. Rushmore of Atlanta’s rap scene. With that being said, their respective accomplishments are worth celebrating on their new single with Rvssian.
Rvssian’s new single “M&M” is all about making money and the three rappers’ ability to do it in a short amount of time. “I checked my bank account, it was negative / I checked again, I had me some M&Ms,” Baby raps on the song while Future adds, “In the streets, Pluto bigger than Jigga / Got racks to my ear — Nah, I can’t hear you.”
The new track is the latest in a string of features that Lil Baby has provided in recent weeks. They include work with Roddy Ricch on “Moved To Miami” and upstart rapper Nardo Wick on “Me Or Sum,” which also features Future. On the flip side, “M&M” comes after Future invited Ye on stage to perform with him at Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud.
You can press play on “M&M” in the video above.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
6lack left the music world very impressed after he released his sophomore album East Atlanta Love Letter back in 2018. Less than a year later, he returned with his 6pc Hot EP which was highlighted by collaborations with Ari Lennox and Lil Baby. Since then, however, the Atlanta singer has been extremely quiet, reappearing to the spotlight for select guest appearances. 6lack previously confirmed that he began work on his third album, but before he begins the rollout for that project, he prepares for his big return with a 2-song release.
The songs are right in the pocket of what we expect from 6lack and why he’s become such a beloved artist. The first effort, “Rent Free,” admits to his pride getting in the way of love. While confessing to his faults, 6lack also says that his ex-lover still remains on his mind. “By Any Means,” on the other hand, is a rather short track that shows off the hip-hop side of his artistry through bars that flex his success in music. Altogether, 6lack seems happy to be back, tweeting “i missed y’all” prior to the songs’ release.
Prior to this song, he connected with Pink Sweats on “Midnight River” and Khalid for “Retrograde.” Elsewhere, he collaborated with Isaiah Rashad on “Score,” Spinall and Fireboy DML for a remix of “Sere,” and Melii on “You Ain’t Worth It.” He also earned the highest-charting song of his career thanks to his appearance on Lil Tjay’s “Calling My Phone” which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart.
You can listen to “Rent Free” and “By Any Means” in the videos above.
Pink Sweats is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Everyone who writes about movies for a living eventually comes to a point in their week or their year or whatever when watching movies stops feeling like fun. Pity me, I know. But especially lately, it can often feel like I’m slogging through some visually drab chore on the off chance something about the content of it will grab me, or worse, just to confirm what was already obvious from watching a few frames. I watched The Card Counter this past week and, granted, that’s a film set entirely in gross casinos, but it had all the visual appeal of surveillance footage. Watching it actually made me depressed and queasy (by design, probably, but also not in an enjoyable way that made me want to keep watching).
Rewatching Paul Thomas Anderson films for this piece was like an oasis in the desert. I’ve done a bunch of these filmmaker ranking posts now and had by far the most fun rewatching Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies. It’s fun to argue about the themes, the characters, the stories in his movies, but you can watch five solid seconds of any single one of his films and know immediately that the person who made it is a real filmmaker. At the basic root of it, his movies make you want to keep watching. You can probably count the number of directors who can do this on one hand. I think this is less because he’s a brilliant visual designer and his movies are always shot beautifully (though they absolutely are), but because he has such a sharp sense of story that even the most minuscule chunk of his films are stories unto themselves.
Does anyone else shoot a prettier movie? Does anyone else balance capital A “Art” and broad comedy so well? Does anyone else have a better eye for actors? John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Vicky Krieps, Katherine Waterston, Philip Baker Hall, Luis Guzmán… not only does no one else cast movies better, Paul Thomas Anderson seems to see things in actors that other people don’t. Before PTA, Mark Wahlberg was a model, a novelty rapper, the brother of a guy in a boy band — essentially the Aaron Carter of the early 90s. Paul Thomas Anderson cast him in a lead role and basically turned him into a movie star overnight (for better or worse).
Licorice Pizza, out in New York in LA last week, expanding nationwide on Christmas Day, seems to further all of PTA’s favorite themes, with an added personal twist that feels almost like the key to understanding his entire catalogue. What better time for a look back at all his movies? Especially when so many are available to stream. At a time of year when I’m trying to forcefeed myself (frequently terrible) awards films, rewatching Paul Thomas Anderson movies feels like a vacation.
9. Magnolia (2000)
New Line
I remember always taking the “anti” side of the debate on Magnolia, back in my “budding obnoxious film snob” days (luckily most of my friends were also in this demo so I didn’t get my ass kicked as much as I probably deserved to). Even then, there were things about Magnolia I enjoyed. Frank TJ Mackie the male dating guru is to this day probably Tom Cruise’s finest performance. The frogs in the end were also very cool, and it wasn’t until a recent rewatch that I discovered that the scuba diver who died getting scooped up by a fire fighting plane in the beginning of the movie was played by Patton Oswalt. Who knew!
Yet Magnolia remains a movie with a lot of things in it to enjoy, but not my favorite PTA on the whole. It was also hard for that first impression of it to evolve — Magnolia tends to discourage a rewatch on account of being three damned hours long. It feels a bit like a young PTA, hot off Hard Eight and Boogie Nights, had the budget and the clout to use every formalistic trick in the book on a movie that could be as idiosyncratic as he wanted. So he went a little nuts, with zoom shots and atmospheric music and post-dialogue camera moves that he’d used much more sparingly in Hard Eight.
As a result, Magnolia, while still a great movie, feels like it belongs to the “cool, indie auteur” period of late nineties cinema maybe more so than it belongs to Paul Thomas Anderson specifically. Anderson leaned into the destiny and cosmic coincidences theme, which makes it feel a little impersonal. It feels more like a trick he wanted to use than some idea about human nature or a notion of himself that he wanted to explore. But hey, getting a little overly self-indulgent early in a career is probably a good way to learn restraint.
Phantom Thread is a pretty good art film that would’ve made a name for any up-and-comer. But this was Paul Thomas Anderson, dammit, and I suppose I expected more. The last time PTA and Daniel Day-Lewis got together, DDL beat Paul Dano to death with a bowling pin. In Phantom Thread, he plays Reynolds Woodcock, a fussy dress designer who turns down a pastry on account of he doesn’t like “snodgy” things. The closed captions (and some of the commenters in my original review) will try to convince you he says “stodgy,” clearly biased towards actual words, but I’m biased towards my goddamned ears and he clearly says “snodgy.” I have rewound.
PTA pulls off many things in Phantom Thread that only a virtuoso director truly could, like making moments of quiet passive aggression feel like operatic arguments, and depictions of quiet annoyance — the scraping of a knife on toast! — that feel like broad comedy. Phantom Thread has incredible performances and plenty of great scenes. The rich drunk woman Woodcock seems to hate is a fascinating interlude, and there’s a reason everyone remembers Alma light-poisoning Reynolds with mushrooms. Still, PhantomThread leaves me cold in comparison to his other films.
Anderson seemed to want to prove that he could be as good at directing repressed British toffs as he is at directing fast-talking American hucksters and big-dicked himbos. Maybe he is, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to enjoy the former nearly so much as the latter. Give me the coarse, crude PTA, there are enough refined, highbrow understated art film directors out there already. There’s also a basic lack of grounding in Phantom Thread in contrast to Anderson’s American-set movies, which are usually so rich in time/place/cultural context detail. Which might be a choice or might be a simple consequence of directing a movie set in a different country.
Hard Eight, Anderson’s first feature based on his own short film, feels very much like a first feature based on a short film. Albeit a very good one. Does it seem like first features are more personal these days? Back in the nineties (when there was a much hotter market for indie movies directed by people trying to become the next Bryan Singer or Quentin Tarantino) they seemed to tend more towards genre exercises and pop thrillers. The conception of “famous director” was probably a lot narrower than it is now.
So it is Hard Eight feels sort of like your standard 90s indie, with a collection of stock characters — the old hand who’s seen some shit (Philip Baker Hall), the hooker with a heart of gold (Gwyneth Paltrow), the angry young man without a father (John C. Reilly, and the predatory hustler (Samuel L. Jackson) — in a sort of classic film school narrative about lost children looking for fathers and absent fathers looking for redemption. It’s about John C. Reilly’s character finding a father figure in Philip Baker Hall’s character, in which you spend most of the movie wondering just what the hell Philip Baker Hall’s character is getting out of all of this, and then in the third act you find out.
That’s basically the whole movie. Yet in Paul Thomas Anderson’s hands (he was just 26 at the time), this story with just four actors, a handful of locations, and barely any music fairly sings. It helps that those four actors were some of the best in the world, and without it the world may never have realized just how brilliant John C. Reilly could be (still one of the most underrated actors out there). It’s also downright gorgeous, clearly a PTA trademark even when working with a tiny budget. And at an hour 42, it barely cracked the 100-minute mark. Take a lesson, aspiring indie film directors.
Punch Drunk Love is a weird little movie, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. It might be the best weird little movie ever made. Anderson’s first movie after Magnolia, which was probably his most self-indulgent and certainly his longest, Punch Drunk Love is essentially arthouse The Waterboy. When it came out I remember the hook being the chance to see Adam Sandler in a non-Adam Sandler movie. Which is funny because rewatching it now, it feels very much like an Adam Sandler movie. Sandler plays the stunted everyman whose impotent rage becomes his superpower, which he uses to save his family and get the girl, just like every Sandler movie ever. Punch Drunk Love is just Paul Thomas Anderson’s take on an Adam Sandler movie, like a Michelin star restaurant doing a riff on an In N Out burger. Punch Drunk Love is almost like the id of other Adam Sandler movies, a brilliant dissection of them. It’s also one of Sandler’s funniest movies and funniest performances.
The Sand Man plays Barry Egan, a repressed oddball who also has various hustles he’s running, from his plunger business to his idea to get unlimited travel by capitalizing on a frequent flyer promotion by buying up all the cheapest Healthy Choice items (which turn out to be pudding). In Barry you can see the seeds of yet another Andersonian huckster character, a sort of grown up, introverted version of Gary Valentine in Licorice Pizza. Barry Egan isn’t a kid, but he’s a younger sibling, and wears his new blue suit the entire movie, deliberately giving the impression of a kid wearing his father’s suit. (Though to be fair, Adam Sandler always looks like that, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him in clothes that fit).
Barry’s constantly being hectored and diminished by his seven sisters, including Elizabeth, played by Mary Lynn Rajskub. Meanwhile, strange things keep happening to him, like witnessing a violent car wreck just before discovering a harmonium left on the street. Later he calls a phone sex line run by a family of Mormon criminals out of the back of a mattress store in Utah, who try to extort him. Surely one of the strangest storylines ever conceived. But Punch Drunk Love is one of those movies where I don’t entirely care why things are happening or what the story is building towards, it’s just so charmingly “off” that I’m content to float along. It has the energy of a quirky short, and somehow maintains it for the entire movie. It’s also 95 minutes long. Punch Drunk Love might not stick with me quite like some of PTA’s other movies, but it makes me smile from opening credits to closing.
Also, and I know pointing this out risks making me seem like a creep but I’m too curious not to: I couldn’t help but notice Emily Watson’s prominent nipples in she and Sandler’s meet-cute scene. Which was very reminiscent of Alana Haim in a similar scene in Licorice Pizza (I mean come on, it’s even in the poster). I can’t help but wonder: is this something Anderson discusses with the actresses beforehand? Is it a discussion between the costume designer and cinematographer? Are there prosthetics involved? He’s so intentional as a filmmaker that I can’t help but ponder the logistics of prominent nipples. Whatever planning leads up to it feels like it would make a great scene in a PTA movie.
Inherent Vice is what I would call a “difficult masterpiece,” which is a weird thing to say about Paul Thomas Anderson, arguably the most crowd-pleasing, popcorn-friendly arthouse director who ever lived. His movies are virtually never difficult to watch. What I mean is that Inherent Vice is deliberately sort of a shaggy dog story. It’s not one of those movies where every scene has a functional purpose in the plot, where characters only show up early in the film because they’re going to be important in the story later on. It’s chaotic by design, so it kind of hurts your brain.
The middle section of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1970s trilogy, Inherent Vice follows stoned private detective Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) as he tries to track down an ex-girlfriend at the height of seventies paranoia. Inherent Vice is an adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, meaning it often feels like it’s winning a contest with itself to invent the most silly-sounding names and incorporate the weirdest story vignettes. It’s a depiction of the Rome-after-the-fall seventies, the seventies full of cultism, drug-induced dissociation, and secret societies. It’s the sand under the surf after Hunter Thompson’s “high and beautiful wave” of mid sixties optimism broke and rolled back. It’s set at a time when the culture felt inexorably broken and everyone seemed to be going at least a little insane — in fact it reminds me a lot of today. We don’t have cults and communes, we have magic crystals and crypto and NFTs. Frankly, Paul Thomas Anderson might’ve been a little ahead of the curve in 2014.
Inherent Vice is also hilarious and quite possibly the sexiest, most beautiful movie ever made. With the right combination of chemicals I could probably be convinced that it’s one of the greatest movies ever. Who is the greatest Paul Thomas Anderson actor? Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reillly? Discuss.
Warner Bros
[Available to rent on various services]
4. The Master (2012)
Weinstein Company
The Master is a lot like Inherent Vice in that it’s quite long, meditative, and slightly meandering. I don’t know always know where it’s going, but I also don’t really care. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a fictionalized L. Ron Hubbard in one of his all-time greatest roles, with Amy Adams as one of his daughters and Joaquin Phoenix as his main acolyte. It was shot and released entirely in 70 mm, another film so beautiful I barely even cared what happened.
Weinstein Company
Joaquin Phoenix is one of the all-time could-watch-this-guy-paint-a-house actors and PTA probably the ultimate could-make-watching-grass-grow-exciting directors. Together they’re irresistible. I could’ve watched Joaquin Phoenix mix up cleaning fluid cocktails and made crude drawings of boobs and wieners all day. In fact, The Master‘s mixture of crudeness and beauty gets to the root of what makes Paul Thomas Anderson movies so enjoyable for me. Think Freddy Quell furiously masturbating on a beautiful beach somewhere shot in glorious 65 mm.
The Master is such a gorgeous, meditative film that I actually dozed off in the theater the first time I saw it. But I was smiling when I drifted off and smiling when I woke up a few minutes later. It’s a pleasant dream of a film.
Just like Buster Scruggs did for the Coens or The French Dispatch did for Wes Anderson, Licorice Pizza seems to offer a road map to all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s various obsessions. It’s a love story, of sorts, between precocious 15-year-old former child actor Gary Valentine (a budding Dale Carnegie and emblematic of so many slick hucksters in the PTA-verse) and emotionally stunted, henpecked-by-her-big-Jewish-family 25-year-old Alana — in many ways a gender-swapped version of Sandler’s character in Punch Drunk Love.
The cast of Licorice Pizza is full of famous names — Haim, Hoffman, Giacchino, DiCaprio — to the point that you wonder whether PTA was trolling when he made a love story between an adult and a minor and cast it with the hereditary Hollywood elite (neither here nor there, but “Gary Valentine” is also the stage name of Kevin James’ brother). But more to the point, PTA was doing what he’s always done: explore the blurry boundary between childhood and adulthood. He explores this boundary with Gary and Alana, but also with the porn industry, with the 1970s, with Scientology, with John C. Reilly’s character in Hard Eight… Plumbing transitional awkwardness for laughs is kind of PTA’s whole deal.
Meanwhile, he does a similar thing in Licorice Pizza as when he cast Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights. This time it’s with Alana Haim in the lead (whom PTA had directed in a bunch of Haim videos) opposite Cooper Hoffman (Philip Seymour’s son), both in their feature debuts. I don’t know if either of them will become movie stars but they sure feel like it in Licorice Pizza.
1. (Tie) Boogie Nights (1997)/There Will Be Blood (2007)
New Line
Yes, I know a tie at the top is the coward’s move. Yes, I also did a tie in my Wes Anderson rankings. Yell at me, I deserve it! But what can I say, once again I simply can’t choose. Boogie Nights is the best major key PTA movie and There Will Be Blood is the best minor key PTA movie. They’re both just about perfect in their own distinct ways. How could I choose? Why would I? (These are rhetorical questions, by the way, no need to answer them).
Boogie Nights is one of the all-time great movies that is both a prestige-y awards film (three Oscar noms) and a cult comedy that I can watch over and over, quoting scenes like Stepbrothers (or, probably more accurately, like Goodfellas). What’s your favorite scene? Philip Seymour Hoffman pathetically blubbering to himself in the car (“I’m so stupid!”)? Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly recording “You Got The Touch?” Mark Wahlberg talking to his prosthetic dick in the mirror?
That last one symbolizes a basic aspect of Paul Thomas Anderson as a filmmaker: that he enjoys grimy, provocative kitsch at least as much as introspective thought experiments and shoots them with equal care.
Boogie Nights has iconic comedy (see above), iconic sex (Heather Graham as roller girl), and iconic tragedy. Don Cheadle getting turned down for his stereo store loan and William H. Macy blowing his brains out at a party are two of the saddest scenes I can think of (the Philip Seymour Hoffman crying scene is sad but kind of too funny to be sad). It also has some of the queasiest foreshadowing outside of a horror film, if you remember the surreal scene at Alfred Molina’s drug den, one of the greatest “and that’s when the drug trip started to turn” scenes of all time. (Molina’s character was actually based on a real guy, Eddie Nash, a convicted drug dealer and money launderer who allegedly ran a racketeering operation for 25 years and probably masterminded the Wonderland murders, who freebased so much coke he eventually had to have a lung removed. His real story is pretty good too.). It’s pretty close to a perfect film.
Then you have There Will Be Blood, one of the most twisted, misanthropic, deliciously goth dark comedies of all time, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as one of the most foundationally American villains ever put to film. I don’t know that there has even been an opening scene more memorable than Daniel Plainview rooting through the entrails of the Earth. It’s almost like PTA wanted to prove that he was more than just the “vivid saturated colors guy” so he made a movie that consisted almost entirely of different shades of black — and succeeded wildly.
Paramount
Daniel Plainview is probably my second favorite Daniel Day-Lewis-chewing-scenery-until-his-teeth-crack character behind Bill the Butcher, such a perfectly evil son of a bitch that you can’t help but love him. The first time I saw it was laughing so hard at him beating Paul Dano’s character to death with a bowling pin that I almost had to leave the auditorium (people were starting to stare). I still contend that that scene is a dark comedy masterpiece.
Consider also: at the time I’d only ever seen Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine, a sullen role that he seemed Wiley Wiggins-in-Dazed-And-Confused-level bad in. Then he showed up in There Will Be Blood barely a year later and looked like an Oscar contender. As always, PTA seems to have a gift for seeing things in actors that other people just don’t. I certainly didn’t. There Will Be Blood is simultaneously hilarious, sad, terrifying, and speaks to something unsettling in the American character. It’s an art movie that also has shlock, full of trailer-ready moments (I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!) that somehow don’t come off cheesy. It might be the first truly great film of the 21st Century.
Licorice Pizza’ opened in select theaters on November 26. It expands nationwide December 25th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.
On December 2, nearly six weeks after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on the New Mexico set of the indie Western Rust, Alec Baldwin—who was holding the gun that killed her—sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos to tell his side of the story. While Baldwin’s goal may have been to get ahead of the story, his decision to speak publicly about the deadly incident while it’s still under investigation was probably not the smartest move.
Just days after Baldwin’s interview, there were reports that the District Attorney handling the case was not very happy about the Oscar nominee’s decision to take his story to primetime. While the actor declared that he had been told it was “highly unlikely” he’d face any criminal charges, Santa Fe First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said that “certain individuals may be criminally culpable for his/her actions and/or inactions on the set of Rust.”
Now, Variety reports that the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office has obtained a warrant to search Baldwin’s cell phone as part of their continuing investigation. “In an affidavit attached to the warrant, Det. Alexandria Hancock said investigators are seeking evidence that may help complete a full investigation,” Gene Maddaus wrote for Variety. “Hancock stated that she had asked Baldwin and his attorney to voluntarily turn over the phone, and she was told to get a warrant.”
Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the on-set armorer, and Dave Halls, Rust’s first assistant director, turned their phones over to police voluntarily, but Variety reported that Baldwin’s lawyer said his client needed to “protect his privacy on unrelated matters”—hence the need for a warrant. In an attempt to piece together all the events and communications leading up to Hutchins’ death, investigators are looking for texts, emails, videos, or other communications related to the production of Rust.
According to Variety: “The affidavit includes details of Baldwin’s initial interview with Sheriff’s detectives, which had not previously been made public. In the interview, Baldwin stated that he had exchanged emails with Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the armorer on the production, about what type of gun to use. She had showed him various options, and he had selected the Colt .45 he was to use in the film.”
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
(@tiimmygala) 
! 
(@ENVZNKing) 
(@hannahamonette) 
(@ShaeJohnson6) 
