The Films of Paul Thomas Anderson

Every new Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) film is treated as a major event and like Quentin Tarantino, his film counts are part of the marketing release such as the recent One Battle After Another marketed as the 10^th PTA film. With 10 PTA films in the books, it feels like an appropriate time to collect my notes and ranking of his films. The 10 films in order of release are:

Hard Eight (1996)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Magnolia (1999)

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

There Will be Blood (2007)

The Master (2012)

Inherent Vice (2014)

Phantom Thread (2017)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

One Battle After Another (2025)

The contemporary nature of PTA means I have seen all but his debut film, Hard Eight, in order and majority of them in a cinema. Boogie Night was seen via VHA tape as that didn’t play long in cinemas around me and Hard Eight and Licorice Pizza were via streaming.

10 films over a span of 29 years is approximately 1 film every 3 years. At the start of his career, PTA was more prolific with his first three feature films released over a three-year span (1996-99) but the gap increased after that. There were two 5-year gaps in between his films and not coincidentally, those 5-year gaps were prior to the release of There Will be Blood and The Master. Considering that both There Will be Blood and The Master create such an intense universe, the extra time prior to their releases makes sense.

Character Studies & Location

Paul Thomas Anderson’s films are brilliant character studies where we are introduced to memorable characters who stay long in the memory. In that regard, his films are an actor’s dream because their work will get noticed. Every single actor in his films has given a stellar performance, no matter how small their role was. This means all the roles are brilliantly casted but also PTA's attention to detail means that actors are given a platform to showcase their talents.

Location is another vital aspect of PTA’s films. This applies to both location in time and space, meaning his films capture the essence of a particular location across a time period. Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Licorice Pizza highlight the energy and sentiments of San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) across different decades; Phantom Thread has an impressive eye for detail related to fashion and food in 1950s London; There Will be Blood captures the ruthless greedy world of 1920-30s oil rush; Hard Eight showcases the transactions and rules of a casino; One Battle After Another exudes the essence of a revolutionary life and the drugs and paranoia associated with it.

Ranking all 10 PTA films in order of preference:

1. There Will be Blood (2007)

The first hour is pure cinematic excellence but it is the finale that draws blood and ends with a thud. A simple dialogue about "drinking your milkshake" underlines the problem with greed. Someone is always carrying a bigger straw.

2. Phantom Thread (2017)

Sumptuous, seductive film with an eye for detail. The fabric and cut of cloth were what I recall most but as it turns out, I missed the focus on food. Phantom Thread is now included by some on their best food films of all time.

3. One Battle After Another (2025)

This brilliant stoner political comedy is a lot funnier than I expected. The second PTA-Thomas Pynchon effort is a home run!

4. The Master (2012)

Long before our world was overrun by crazy delusional men with no principals, virtues or ethics, PTA crafted this devastating case study depicting people who can easily be manipulated by impressive speakers. In this regard, The Master is a film whose message is much more universal and not grounded to just a single religion or ideology.

5. Boogie Nights (1997)

PTA’s 2^nd film became a cult sensation and was one of those films whose popularity was spread by word of month long before the internet and social media made that task easier.

6. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

After the weighty Magnolia, PTA changed gears and surprised with Punch-Drunk Love which showed a completely different side of Adam Sandler. There are many layers to Sandler’s performance and the film balances tender romance with release of anger.

7. Inherent Vice (2014)

The first PTA-Thomas Pynchon test run is a stoner comedy that sets the ground for One Battle for Another. Inherent Vice contains an impressive cast of actors with many memorable cameos.

8. Magnolia (1999)

Magnolia came out long before social media and memes went viral. The film has many scenes (yes including that frog scene) that felt like they were talked about everywhere, on radio, in newspapers, around the office and among friends. Magnolia was released just before 1999 ended and there was already some anxiety about what 2000 (Y2K) would bring so perhaps that frog rain scene played into an end of the world sentiment. The film was also highly divisive. Looking back, it is impressive to think that this was just PTA’s 3^rd feature and one packed with some risky decisions.

Note: 1999 also saw the release of American Beauty, Fight Club, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich so there were a handful of Hollywood films showcasing reality in a different light.

9. Hard Eight (1996)

PTA’s impressive debut takes a hard turn from the initial first few scenes. At first, it feels like we will be seeing a master-student relationship in the art of gambling, but the film has other ideas.

10. Licorice Pizza (2021)

The refreshing acting of Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman ensures their on-screen characters exude an easy flowing chemistry.

Best Films of the 2010s

The 2010s (2010-2019) continued the streak of stellar global films from the 2000s. The cinematic trajectory was firmly on the way up and in the last year of the decade we had the first truly global crossover film in Parasite (2019), which went all the way from winning the Palme d’Or (Cannes 2019) to top of the Academy Awards in Feb 2020. The success of Parasite gave hope that global cinema would continue to soar in the 2020s. But alas, March 2020 arrived and the world shut down. Cinemas struggled to stay afloat, film festivals had to scale back and the already fragile film distribution broke down. It took a few years for some form of global film output to resume but it was clear the world had drastically changed. Time will tell where the 2020s stand in terms of cinematic quality. Was 2019 the highpoint for global cinema and film festivals? Currently, it appears so. Looking from the vantage point of 2025, it does feel that the 2010s may be the last great decade for cinema for a long time. The next 5 years may prove me wrong. But this post is about celebrating the beautiful films of the 2010s.

Top 30 films of the 2010s (2010-19):

1. Dil Dhadakne Do (2015, India, Zoya Akhtar)

Sholay (1975) was #1 in my 1970s film list and is still considered to be the greatest Hindi language film of all time. Dil Dhadakne Do arrived 4 decades later, directed by Zoya Akhtar and co-written by her brother Farhan Akhtar (who also stars in the film). Both Zoya and Farhan are the children of Javed Akhtar, one of the brilliant co-writers of Sholay (the other being Salim Khan, the duo often known as Salim-Javed). The two films, Sholay and Dil Dhadakne Do, couldn’t be more different yet in their own way capture a sentiment of the times.

Sholay captured the anger, angst and fear of the 1970s while Dil Dhadakne Do captures sentiments of an evolving India, one where women are fighting for their dreams/careers/identity against a highly patriarchal society; where families rarely discuss their problems and where children don’t want to blindly follow their parents wishes. Dil Dhadakne Do depicts many hard-hitting realities but in an entertaining way. The film is packed with stars, catchy songs (yes there is dancing) and beautiful locales like many Bollywood films but unlike most Bollywood films, Dil Dhadakne Do has a brain and a heart.

2. Zama (2017, Argentina co-production, Lucrecia Martel)

3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

4. Certified Copy (2010, France/Iran/Italy, Abbas Kiarostami)

5. Timbuktu (2014, Mauritania/France, Abderrahmane Sissako)

6. Holy Motors (2012, France, Leos Carax)

7. Transit (2018, Germany/France, Christian Petzold)

8. Jauja (2014, Argentina co-production, Lisandro Alonso)

9. Like Father, Like Son (2013, Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda)

10. This is Not a Film (2011, Iran, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi)

11. The Treasure (2015, Romania/France, Corneliu Porumboiu)

12. Carlos (2010, France, Olivier Assayas)

13. Burning (2018, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong)

14. Parasite (2019, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho)

15. Neighboring Sounds (2012, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

16. Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Colombia co-production, Ciro Guerra)

17. Right Now, Wrong Then (2015, South Korea, Hong Sang-soo)

18. The Pearl Button (2015, Chile/France/Spain/Switzerland, Patricio Guzmán)

19. A Man of Integrity (2017, Iran, Mohammad Rasoulof)

20. Shin Godzilla (2016, Japan, Hideaki Anno/Shinji Higuchi)

21. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018, China, Bi Gan)

22. A Gentle Creature (2017, France/Russia/Ukraine co-production, Sergei Loznitsa)

23. One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019, Canada, Zacharias Kunuk)

24. Faces Places (2017, France, JR/Agnès Varda)

25. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Canada/Norway, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

26. The Turin Horse (2011, Hungary co-production, Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky)

27. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, China, Hu Bo)

28. Ash is Purest White (2018, China co-production, Jia Zhang-ke)

29. Get Out (2017, USA/Japan, Jordan Peele)

30. Under the Skin (2013, UK/Switzerland/USA, Jonathan Glazer)

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

Vitalina Varela (2019, Portugal, Pedro Costa)

The Master (2012, USA, Paul Thomas Anderson)

The Social Network (2010, USA, David Fincher)

Cocote (2017, Dominican Republic co-production, Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias)

A Separation (2011, Iran/France/Australia, Asghar Farhadi)

45 Years (2015, UK, Andrew Haigh)

Phantom Thread (2017, USA/China, Paul Thomas Anderson)

Closeness (2017, Russia, Kantemir Balagov)

Varda by Agnès (2019, France, Agnès Varda)

The Nothing Factory (2017, Portugal, Pedro Pinho)

Happy Hour (2015, Japan, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

Pain and Glory (2019, Spain/France, Pedro Almodovar)

La Flor (2018, Argentina, Mariano Llinás)

Ship of Theseus (2012, India/Holland, Anand Gandhi)

Kaili Blues (2015, China, Bi Gan)

Li’l Quinquin (2014, France, Bruno Dumont)

The Tribe (2014, Ukraine/Netherlands, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)

The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Portugal co-production, Manoel de Oliveira)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Thailand co-production, Apichatpong)

Drive (2011, USA, Nicolas Winding Refn)

The Great Beauty (2013, Italy/France, Paolo Sorrentino)

Jafar Panahi's Cinema

Notes and Ranking of all 11 features of Jafar Panahi to date:

The White Balloon (1995)

The Mirror (1997)

The Circle (2000)

Crimson Gold (2003)

Offside (2006)

This Is Not a Film (2011)

Closed Curtain (2013)

Taxi (2015)

3 Faces (2018)

No Bears (2022)

It Was Just an Accident (2025)

Jafar Panahi’s 2025 Palme d’Or win at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident means he is only one of four directors (Robert Altman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Henri-Georges Clouzot being the other 3) to have won top awards at Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Panahi won the Golden Bear at Berlin with Taxi in 2015 and the Golden Lion at Venice in 2000 with The Circle. The fact that two of have these awards have come in the last decade is incredible especially after Panahi’s 2010 sentence in Iran which raised fears that he may never direct a film again. However, he and his entire film crew and cast have shown incredible courage and creativity to not only get films made but also getting them released out of Iran.

Jafar Panahi started running into problems with authorities from his earlier films two decades ago. The reason for that stems from Panahi depicting social topics and plight of characters (especially women) who don’t have a voice. In this brilliant interview with Doug Saunders (from back in 2007) Panahi mentions reveals the following:

Doug Saunders: Has censorship been a constant through your filmmaking career, or is it more intense today?

Jafar Panahi: I started my career making children’s films, and while doing that I had no problems with censors. As soon as I started making feature films, it all started and I had problems.

Really, making children’s films was a way of saying what we wanted to say in adult films. But because of the circumstances, we chose that format because it was less prone to censorship at the time.

It just got worse and worse as time went on, and one could say that the past year or year and a half have been the darkest age for filmmaking in Iran.

Since I make a film once every 3 years, I haven’t had a chance to present the current administration with a project. But everyone around me, my friends, has had experiences that are quite awful.

Panahi goes on to mention:

In 2003 I was arrested by the information ministry; they kept me and interrogated me for four hours. In the end their question was: ‘Why don’t you just leave this country and work outside of Iran, given that the core of your supporters live there?’

Panahi’s stand back then and even now is staying in Iran and making films. His films are some of the finest made in the history of cinema despite working with barriers and restrictions other filmmakers may never encounter.

Ranking his films feels inappropriate. All 11 of his features are remarkable works of art. Each of them present fascinating ideas to ponder upon and highlight perspective that one may not think of. So this ranking is a personal preference, one that has shifted over the years and will likely still change.

Ranking all 11 of Jafar Panahi’s films:

1. Crimson Gold (2003, Director Jafar Panahi, Writer Abbas Kiarostami)

This brilliant film about class difference is also one of the most incredible cinematic collaborations in history with Panahi directing a story written by maestro Abbas Kiarostami.

Ali and Hussein are average men who go about making an honest living by working as pizza delivery men. When Ali finds an expensive purse, he comes across a receipt for an Italian necklace which costs 75 million Tomans. The two are shocked that someone could spend so much on a necklace and decide to visit the jewellery store and look at what such an expensive necklace looks like. But the jeweler refuses to let the two in because of how they are dressed. Therefore, a few days later, Hussein dresses smartly and returns to the store with his fiancée and Ali. But even then, the same jeweler manages to find a way to get the message across that store is not for people like them. This insult eats at Hussein and results in him going over the edge.

Besides this class difference, the film manages to cover other aspects of Iranian society such as how police perceive younger people in enforcing law. The film also alludes to a time when women didn't have to cover up in Iran while also depicting attitude difference of Iranians who live abroad and return to Iran.

2. The Circle (2000)

After his first two children themed films, Panahi changed gears completely with this insightful powerful film which depicts the treatment of women in Iranian society. This ranges from the inability of women to travel without the permission (or presence) of a male figure to women not being able to speak freely or live on their own terms. Any infringements against the patriarchal society means that women find themselves thrown into prison. This film completes a circle with Panahi’s recent film It Was Just an Accident which discusses the harsh treatment that both women and men get in prison.  It is safe to assume that after The Circle, Panahi put himself on the Iranian authorities list.

3. This Is Not a Film (2011, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi)

The first film that Panahi made after his filmmaking ban is the next evolution in his cinema as this film shows that in the hands of a talented filmmaker even a tiny, confined space can be a liberating cinematic experience. The final moments capture those magical moments that Werner Herzog has claimed happen only when the camera is left recording just a little bit longer.

4. Taxi (2015)

Taxi is the third film Jafar Panahi crafted after he was banned from making films by the Iranian Government in 2010. Like This Is Not a film, the first film Panahi made under the ban, Taxi does not appear to be a scripted film and hence, not a film also.

Taxi features Jafar Panahi driving a taxi around the streets of Tehran, picking up passengers and dropping them off at different locations. All the interactions with passengers are recorded from a camera on his dashboard, so technically, Panahi is not directing anything. However, the inclusion of smart dialogues, shift in camera angles and the presence of a few memorable passengers reveals Panahi’s brilliance. Pushed into a corner by the government, Panahi has tapped into the same creative energy as The White Balloon and Crimson Gold; films he directed before the ban. He uses a taxi as a medium to bring forth relevant discussions about society, freedom, censorship, public vs private space and even film distribution while also paying a tribute towards Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten (2002), which featured a female driver.

5. The White Balloon (1995, co-written by Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Parviz Shahbazi)

6. The Mirror (1997)

Jafar Panahi’s first two features The White Balloon and The Mirror are the purest examples of the exciting Iranian New Wave cinema that started making waves in the 1990s.

Both films are presented from a little child’s perspective, much like Abbas Kiarostami’s earlier films. In fact, The White Balloon is co-written by Kiarostami. In many aspects, The White Balloon and The Mirror are similar but diverge when the 4^th wall is shattered half-way through The Mirror. After that point onwards, The Mirror becomes a meta film about filmmaking echoing some aspects of Kiarostami’s Close Up.

7. It Was Just an Accident (2025)

The topic of justice and retribution feels more like that of a Mohammad Rasoulof’s film, especially The Seed of the Sacred Fig and There Is No Evil, but Panahi has mentioned in interviews the story came from the experience he heard of other prisoners and also from his own experience in prison. The film sheds a light on trauma and suffering that individuals face under an oppressive system that feels like a living breathing example of The Stanford Prison Experiment, an experiment that many Latin, Asian and African countries started facing from the 1970s onward. Panahi’s film shows that the experiment isn’t over yet and even if it were over tomorrow, it would take decades (or generations) for citizens to heal.

8. No Bears (2022)

Panahi travels to the Iranian border and shows how a film can be potentially directed remotely, an appropriate nod to our times where remote work has become a lot more commonplace across the globe.

9. 3 Faces (2018)

3 Faces is the fourth film Panahi made since his filmmaking ban and was the first since that ban where he left Tehran for the countryside. This travel allows some cultural and political conversations to enter the frame and the end result is one of Panahi’s strongest works, one that even has a nod to the late master Abbas Kiarostami’s films.

10. Offside (2006)

This film is an extension of The Circle in depicting the restrictions women face in Iranian society. In Offside, Panahi shows how female soccer fans are not allowed to watch games in the stadium alongside men. The film contains plenty of magical moments such as the nervous expression on one of the girl's face as she tries to sneak into the stadium, the passion with which the guard narrates a running commentary for the girls who are held in custody and the mesmerizing moment when we finally see the beautiful green soccer field. The best part of the film unfold in the last 15-20 minutes where the camera highlights the emotions and expressions of fans who are delighted at Iran's qualification for the 2006 World Cup -- there is very little dialogue, and we can see unscripted human emotion on display.

11. Closed Curtain (2013)

Following This Is Not a Film, Panahi shows another creative way to make a film despite his ban. As per the title, the film takes place in a house with the curtains shut. What at first appears to be a tranquil setting turns out to be anything but that.