Punched It. Drank It. Loved It

Saw "Punch Drunk Love" tonight. What a great film. So oddball, offbeat, weird, funny... and probably the most romantic movie I've seen in quite some time. Maybe that says a lot about my idea of romance.

P.T. Anderson is one hell of an interesting filmmaker. This film was so interesting visually. There's a sceneóone of the more subtle onesówhere Sandler and Emily Watson are strolling down a city street at nightóI think it's after the restaurant scene, their first date, I thinkóand there's a big transport truck slowly turning the corner behind them. For some reason, it struck me as so poetic, in terms of the vocabulary of the film. Grace in the mundane, the ordinary.

And I loved the placement of the harmonium. I'm sure there's a term for that in film lingo, but I don't know what it is. Anybody? Ferris?

A pretty incredible break-out performance from Adam Sandler. A great "beautiful loser" character, if I can call Barry that. As weird as he is, there's really nothing about him that I couldn't relate to on some level. He gives in to uncontrollable rage when people hurt him, especially those closest to him, yet also surrenders to his deepest despair and cries like a baby. Who hasn't wanted to do both of those things from time to timeóor perhaps daily? But most of all, he's scared to death of love, but pursues it bravely. He's anti-heroic and heroic. In a sense, he's also a contemporary Everyman. He's nuts. He's screwed up. He's dysfunctional. But isn't that the proper response to living in a nutty, screwed-up, dysfunctional world?

There's also a strong smell of fear in this film. I think maybe Fear is the main antagonist.

Go see this movie if you haven't already.

p.s. Interesting fact about P.T. Anderson (from IMDB): Dropped out of NYU's film program after two days. Subsequently got his tuition payment back and used the money to make "Cigarettes and Coffee" (1993).

That's my kind of filmmaker.