Houston does Paul Thomas Anderson

[Houston]

The profession of directing isn't known for spawning many "child" prodigies, but here we have one of the few that could be called that.

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The films of his that I hadn't already seen I never watched because they never interested me. But last night I spotted his first feature on Netflix. I desperately tried to find something else(went through my list 3 times), but couldn't and decided it was finally time. So I'm not putting it off anymore, about to take a ride through his career. Follow along if you're interested.

[Buzzman]

I just recently watched his first two films.

[Houston]

[MvP]

I've slowly been doing this, as I've watched Punch Drunk Love, The Master, and Boogie Nights within the past two months, and I saw There will be Blood when it came out. I actually might watch Hard Eight tonight, and then Magnolia on blu-ray is shipping here tomorrow.

Boogie Nights is probably my favorite so far, but I could make a case for any of them.

[Houston]

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I've seen a few short films from big directors. Some of them are impressive: Martin Scorsese's, Christopher Nolan's, Mike Leigh's. Others are respectable: Andrea Arnold's, Napoleon Dynamite's, Wes Anderson's. And some make you question how they ever became good directors: Quentin Tarrantino's, Jason Reitman's.

Most of the time these shorts just have the same themes and style of their later works. PTA though(like Napoleon Dynamite later did), took the same characters/story and expanded on them. When he was 17 he made a mockumentary about a retired porn star that paved the way for Boogie Nights which actually has some of the same scenes shot for shot. Later he made Cigarettes and Coffee which was expanded into his first feature film Hard Eight, with the help of The Sundance institute where it was killing at.

As far as quality goes, not only was it shot on a lower level camera back in '93, but the only copy of it online is a VHS rip. It can be hard to watch because of that, but everything else is fine. He apparently had some connections and was able to get real actors in it. The main guy from Hard Eight is in this, and I'm pretty sure his son figure is the cop from Reservoir Dogs. It's a slow burner, but there's some fine story telling in it. No frills or trills, cool techniques, innovation, or quirky nonsense, just pure story telling pushing it along. It's about how a 20 dollar bill connects three separate parties inside of a diner. Not much else to it, as it's only 10 mins long. I will say though, that it's one of the few times I've ever seen a short film and wished that it would keep going. There's a complete story here, but it's also doubles as a nice setup for what could be a quality movie.


For those who dare to watch, I'm not responsible for any harm done to your eyes...

 

[Maynard]

geez...didnt know he was only 26-27 when he made boogie nights. one of my favorite movies. magnolia was alright and i didnt really get into there will be blood. still have not seen the master.