plug: Punch Drunk Love (2002)

“I don’t know if there is anything wrong because I don’t know how other people are.”

I listened to The A24s podcast conversation between Paul Thomas Anderson and Josh and Benny Sadfie yesterday. They talked a lot about one of my favorite films, Punch Drunk Love, because Anderson happened to have written and directed it. It came up really naturally, I gotta say, and it was really cool hearing them talk about Adam Sandler in the context of being in Punch Drunk Love and Uncut Gems. Listen here.

There are always a lot of conversations and arguments about Paul Thomas Anderson films, but hardly ever any about Punch Drunk Love, which I think is his best. There is nothing like Punch Drunk Love. If you haven’t seen it, here are a few things to know.

1. Punch Drunk Love is about a lonely man named Barry. He’s played by Adam Sandler. Early in the film, Barry says to his brother-in-law “I don’t know if there is anything wrong because I don’t know how other people are.” As you can imagine, this is a telling line of dialogue!

2. Punch Drunk Love is a Los Angeles romance. The love interest is Lena, played by Emily Watson. Lena is weird and cool!

3. Some sequences in Punch Drunk Love feel like a perfect dream you’re sorry you woke up from.

4. Other sequences feel like a hallucination inspired by a panic attack.

5. The quickest way to describe Punch Drunk Love is as a comedy fantasy about the fear and anger and desperation of loneliness.

6. I think it points out some parts of masculinity that feel like scams. Those scenes make me feel anxious but are very funny and Philip Seymour Hoffman is in most of them.

7. It has an amazing soundtrack by Jon Brion. It is a beautiful film that I love.