I have no idea what it's like to seduce a woman who turns out to be a man, but a reasonable equivalent has to be thoroughly enjoying Punch-Drunk Love (even as uncomfortable as it made me) only to notice at the end that P.T. Anderson was responsible for it.
One of these things must be true:
1. Maybe I was wrong about Magnolia (but I highly doubt it)
2. Maybe I overrated PDL just now (I doubt that even more)
3. Maybe Magnolia was just a one-time misstep (I'm willing to believe that, though some of you also hated Boogie Nights and/or Coffee & Cigarettes, no?)
4. Maybe PDL was a blind squirrel finding a nut
Speaking of relevant things I've never seen, I've never seen Monk, though I know the basic premise. The crazy ways Monk's mind works aren't really how my mind works, yet the crazy ways Barry Egan's (Adam Sandler) mind works are just alarmingly similar to how my mind works. (So clearly I don't have OCD, yet might have whatever combination of autism, paranoia, etc. ... ?)
Oh yeah: I'd known all about this, my all-time favorite Snopes entry, though if I ever internalized the PDL tie-in, that had slipped my mind by the time we rented it.
And another update: Speaking of late-period Adam Sandler comedies, I've still never seen Anger Management (and probably never will) because the entire premise just freaks me out too much to cope with the whole movie.
Adam Sandler plays "me" remarkably often (but NOT in any of those early Sandler movies where he's always the same idiot man-child).
Posted by Matt Bruce at March 11, 2007 12:33 AMAnderson had nothing to do with Coffee & Cigarettes, btw. His first movie was Hard Eight. I think PTA above average. He's not a fave of mine, but I enjoy his stuff better than the Altman films he's clearly aping.
While the one episode of Monk I saw was pretty good, the OCD-detective thing was done first (and far better) in Zero Effect.
Posted by: Greg at March 11, 2007 08:52 AMI'd heard about the pudding guy in various media, but I hadn't realized that he'd purchased the goods at various Groce Out's in the Central Valley.
Posted by: WestBerkeleyFlats at March 11, 2007 10:19 AMPDL is my favorite PTA movie and he takes a very different approach than with Magnolia or Boogie Nights so it's understandable that you might like this one and not care for the others so much (heh.)
I think James DiGiovanna expresses much the same in this review from the Tucson Weekly.
"None of P.T. Anderson's previous movies, with their rambling, expansive nature, are preparation for how concisely aimed this work is."
Posted by: mountmccabe at March 11, 2007 04:34 PM