JasonSperb is not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s something much better—anintelligent critic trying to discern what’s valuable and what’s not inAnderson’s body of cinematic work. In his close reading of the director, Blossoms & Blood: Postmodern MediaCulture and the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson (University of Texas Press),Sperb finds much to admire and much to criticize in the man behind Boogie Nights and There Will be Blood.
Alecturer in Northwestern University’s radio-television-film department, Sperbconnects Anderson to historical currents in late 20th centurymoviemaking as well as the director’s formative experiences. Anderson was closeto his father, who worked in Hollywood, but less so to his mother, perhaps thebasis for the problematic women in some of his movies. Since the director grewup on the backbenches of the entertainment industry circus, Sperb concludesthat he’s preoccupied with “mediation,” an unsurprising fascination in asociety where our relations to each other and reality are “mediated by imagesin an unprecedented fashion.” As Sperb sees it, mediation “casts doubt onnotions of origin and absolute truth”; uncertain claims of truth andauthenticity are themes in Anderson’s films.
Theauthor proceeds to illustrate his thesis with examples, yet it must be said thatmedia induced or distorted pictures of reality became prevalent in post-WorldWar II film. They are part of the cultural DNA of most recent filmmakers,whether consciously explored or not.
Sperb’sthesis is less interesting than his careful, film-by-film analyses ofAnderson’s work (and the life experiences that fed the work). Anderson wastalented but obstinate when he emerged as part of the Sundance-fueled ‘90sindie crowd. Sperb examines the legend of Anderson’s heroic refusal to compromiseover his first production, Hard Eight(1996), and finds it as wanting as the movie itself. Hard Eight was an interesting if somewhat by numbers neo-noir,imbued with the elements of the newest art house wave, especially the lack ofobvious identification with characters, prompting audiences to “actively engagein deciphering the film and its characters” rather than accepting the facevalue characterizations of Hollywood and kindred cinemas.
Theassessment is mixed for Anderson’s next films, Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia(1999). But with the unlikely Adam Sandler vehicle Punch-Drunk Love (2002), the director achieved “a newfound maturityattuned to the aesthetic beauty and creative potential of ephemerality.” UnlikeBoogie Nights and Magnolia, conceived as if to show offAnderson’s dazzling brilliance, Punch-DrunkLove maintains a delicate balance of “ironic distance and sincere sympathy.”Working as Robert Altman’s understudy on the veteran director’s final film, A Prairie Home Companion (2006), taughtAnderson the value of collaboration and spontaneity that would inform his masterpiece,There Will be Blood (2007). Hisyouthful overconfidence evaporated, ThereWill be Blood was the work of a fully mature auteur. Arriving as Blossoms and Blood was going to press,Sperb could offer only cursory comments on TheMaster (2012).
Blossomsand Blood includes an unsettling realization: the currents that shaped PaulThomas Anderson—along with Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and Wes Anderson—havealready passed into history. The screens are getting smaller, even as theopportunities for wannabe auteurs are more numerous than ever.
