Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love

 I was leery to put two movies by the same director on my list, but I simply could not resist. Anderson seems to understand the male psyche in a way few artists of any medium ever have. In this film, we see a study of the post-feminist male drenched in evocative lighting and accompanied (as always) by a riveting soundtrack. Barry (played by Adam Sandler) was raised by a coterie of over bearing sisters. The protagonist seems to represent the backlash of aggression and inability to deal with feelings that post-modern men experience when emasculated by an upbringing by women. Our hero is seemingly docile most of the time, but is prone to lashing out in quiet violence when subtly provoked by his sisters. He calls a sex hotline for companionship (he wants to talk about life instead of sex) and gets caught up in a pyramid scheme that takes advantage of his docile nature. He later hones his repressed aggression to rectify the situation through strength, something new to Barry. We also see Barry fall in love (a love that becomes the source of said strength). This is where the meat of the writing exists. Barry struggles to connect with a woman that is not lording over him. His courtship also reflects the oft-ignored struggle of most men (especially those with strong maternal figures) to understand the differences and similarities of relating to a woman as a companion and relating to her as just another mother or sister. I could go on and on about how perfectly this movie serves as both mirror and catharsis for the plight of the post-modern man and his struggle to redefine and re-understand what it is to be masculine without losing the valuable perspective imparted to him by strong, familial women. The bottom line is, you have to see this movie to fully understand its depth and wonder.