How does PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE stack up to PTA's previous films?

[fulty]

Punch-Drunk-Love makes me feel happy in love.
Magnolia gives me the best cry, and then inspiration.
Hard 8 makes me appreciate my Dad.
And Boogie Nights is the most entertaining.

I think my favorite will continue to be.....whichever one I am watching right now..!!

[neatahwanta]

P-DL is the most enjoyable....glad I saw it 15...or was it 16 times.  Made me smile all the way though.

Magnolia may be the most powerful, but a bit too unhappy for my tastes.

[Duck Sauce]

And Boogie Nights is the most entertaining.

Not to mention funniest.

The PTA should do a comedy

[UNELLI]

I can't believe so many of you didn't get PDL.
The charm of the movie is it's quirks and off beats and...oh fug it. you just didn't get it, man.
suuuucks.

[oakmanc234]

What shocked me about 'PDL' was how funny it was, I wasn't expecting it to be that funny. It's not 'Ahahahahaha'-funny but real tongue-in-cheek wit. Its a really sharp comedy. Lots of reviewers have called it a 'comedic drama' but I'd probably call it a 'dramatic comedy' (among other things).

[budgie]

i see what you mean and i would do the same, if it wasnt for the fact that the two leads do not work together .

if they had chemistry we could just go with it and forget about everything and just feel the love as it were . I really think emily watson was a mistake.

P'raps the fact that the film relies so heavily on us getting the chemistry, and does so little to persuade, means that it can never be called great, but when you think that falling in love is about this inexplicable chemistry that from the outside is invisible, and that only happens mysteriously, then not getting it is part of the intended effect. So you can still see it as great, you're just not in on the fuzziness.

This is where I wonder, though, to what extent you have to - and can - consciously open yourself up to it, to falling in love with it: hence everyone loving it first time round, full of desire to love it, but being more critical later, when the first flush has worn off. So PTA is making us feel his philosophy again, just as in Magnolia: unless you open yourself up, you're gonna never know the joy of PDL/human connection.

Hmm, says a lot about people who didn't go a bundle

[Duck Sauce]

Lena seemed a tad more like a motherly figure than maybe a girlfriend to me.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Lena seemed a tad more like a motherly figure than maybe a girlfriend to me.

Freudian.

[chainsmoking insomniac]

Lena matronly?  Hmm....maybe.
I thought they were a perfect pair.  I sensed she had issues (as did Barry Egan), only PTA never really got into them....(although didn't she allude to her having lots of brothers? Or did she say that she didn't have alot of siblings....?)
Shit, brain fart.

[Pubrick]

(although didn't she allude to her having lots of brothers? Or did she say that she didn't have alot of siblings....?)

she has no siblings. she says she's the complete opposite.

either way, i like the mother thing, and PTA does too, it goes with the whole manchild deal.. reminds me of that UK nterview where he freaked out about When The Cat's Away, there's clearly a conflict between the sweet & pure (beginnings) and the bitter reality of end(ing)s.

i mean, no one dies in PDL, that's cool.

most importantly, i think that boogie nights and magnolia presented a sort of journey through which a strong female presence could be discovered as redemptive, the sweetness came after several endings.. but PDL begins with that lonely state of mind, the trip is shorter and it's intent is simply to GET CLOSER, to take the leap. it's the same jump but magnified and the energy to take off is sumthing u can bring.

the structure itself is all about fractured beginnings that in the end clear up when all the clutter is dealt with, hence the harmonium works.

2:15 is officially the best time to write shit that sounds good in ur head.

[neatahwanta]

...but PDL begins with that lonely state of mind, the trip is shorter and it's intent is simply to GET CLOSER, to take the leap. it's the same jump but magnified and the energy to take off is sumthing u can bring.

I like that.

[atticus jones]

pdl was really pretty damn lame...

magnolia was too long...

boogie nights was just a rip off...

hard eight was hard to watch...

ranking:

fagnolia
heart ache
booger nights
punch stunk love

[UNELLI]

I thought the agreement thing to this board said you had to be over the age of 13 to join

[UNELLI]

that was just really lame and unfunny....sorry.

[UNELLI]

My post not yours...god I'm an ass.....I apologize again aaaand to bed I go.