It was great to see another Paul Thomas Anderson romance movie considering how much I adored Licorice Pizza, and I was walking fairly blind into this movie. Adam Sandler plays a businessman with social anxiety named Barry who similar to The Dude himself gets embroiled in this caper, while also meeting this nice lady Lena played by Emily Watson as a odd romance blooms between the pair. It is an interesting movie to say the least, certainly never dull for a moment pretty much from the word go with an opening sequence bordering on David Lynch bizarreness as we follow the day to day life of Barry. This was one of Adam Sandler's first forays into more dramatic acting which from all examples present he actually has a knack for, and while there are moments of offbeat comedy present the movie plays it pretty straight and he is very believable in the role to where I kinda forgot I was watching Adam Sandler! Emily Watson gets a smidge of screentime but I do like the romance that is played up and she is very likable and sweet, and it is quite nice to hear her native accent present. Philip Seymour Hoffman essentially plays our antagonist who has even less screen presence than Emily, but you know what it's Philip he puts in a good performance no matter how small the role is and again it is an interesting dynamic between our main character and the antagonist. It's a romance movie with some sprinklings of other more original plot points that keep it interesting and I think that's really why I like it as much as I do! It's such a horse of a different color and defies all tropes of a typical romance movie akin to Licorice Pizza and yet in an even more bold way. Now if you want a master class on lighting and a cut above the rest in terms of color palette, dear sweet God look no further! There is not a dull or average shot to this movie, with use of shafts of light and lens flares, tracking shots and great use of space, color sequences nothing short of kaleidoscopic and wondering if I was having one of my occasional acid flashbacks, it really did kinda blow my socks off. If that wasn't enough this movie quite possibly more than any other effortlessly got me severely anxious and wound up tighter than a spring, through the sound design and music choices alone, really putting you in Barry's shoes as this maelstrom of shit is happening around him and you feel that ever increasing crescendo of stress and uneasiness rub off on you. That is pretty impressive storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I know for a fact it isn't going to be for everybody, critically it did pretty well but commercially was considered a bomb but I feel as time has passed since 2002 it's gotten a cult status. It's good enough for the Criterion Collection so it's good enough for me. 3 stars, 8/10, and next time we got another movie that has been on my list since even before the movie hit theaters so stay tuned.
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