Punch-Drunk Love

Year:	2002
Country:	USA
Language:	English
Genre:	Rom-Com, Drama
IMDB:	IMDB Page
Rating:	7.5 Rate
Collection:	Seen It Wishlist
Community:	6 Have Seen


Director	Paul Thomas Anderson
Selected Cast	Adam Sandler as Barry Egan
	Emily Watson as Lena Leonard
	Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dean Trumbell
	Luis Guzmán as Lance
	Mary Lynn Rajskub as Elizabeth
Producer	JoAnne Sellar
	Daniel Lupi
	Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer	Paul Thomas Anderson
Soundtrack	Jon Brion

On DVD & Blu-ray World

DVD

Punch-Drunk Love - SF - Sweden (2002)

DVD

Punch-Drunk Love - Columbia TriStar - Australia (2003)

DVD

Embriagado De Amor - Lusomundo - Portugal (2003)

Images

Comments and Reviews


zabadak 1st May 2023		Trailer :happy:



Magic Marmalade 18th Dec 2021		Rated 7/10 Surreal rom-com noir. I have been hearing about this increasingly over the years, and always intended to see what the buzz was about. A couple of things put me off though, principally Adam Sandler... who's name induces cringes in me, as I really do not like his usual comedic style, or the films he tends to be in. The other thing being that the "buzz" was a very kind of low level one, so I just kept of forgetting about it. So I was pleasantly surprised when the DVD turned up in the charity shop the other week, when I went to buy a stack of DVDs and books in anticipation of the next lockdown. It's strange... damn strange! And probably all the better for it, as it has a bizarre, unsettling quality in the film-making style that subverts the romantic comedy basis of the plot. Sandler's character is a lonely, messed up, angst ridden, paranoid (certainly mentally ill) "entrepreneur" who works out of an industrial unit in the middle of some drab, nowhere town, and who's hobbies include collecting free air miles tokens from puddings in supermarkets, in bulk, and generally getting fixated and obsessive with things, as well as evading the attempts of his many sisters trying to set him up with a date, or at the very least, pull him out of himself and be more sociable... ...And so one of the women introduced to him: Emily Watson, inexplicably comes to like him, and want to go out with him, in spite of his apparent lack of interest, inappropriate social responses, unpredictably excessive behaviours, and generally insular, festering nature. In the background is this bizarre and nightmarish sub-plot that develops when he phones a sex line one evening when he feels particularly lonely, and then becomes the subject of a campaign of spiralling persecution and victimisation by the woman he was talking to, and the whoever she is working for. It all makes for a distinctly uneasy, claustrophobic experience, which is further enhanced by these kind of Rothko inspired art-installation type interludes / transition films, and the clunky, odd, and dissonant, and non-musical random noise soundtrack, which can induce you, the viewer to feel like you're half nuts yourself, or getting there! Not the kind of film you'd usually associate with anyone in the cast, or even the director, Paul Thomas Anderson.... ...It's more the feel of a Charlie Kaufman scripted, Michel Gondry / Spike Jonze directed affair, perhaps inspired by a dystopian Franz Kafka paranoia novel. So think: Being John Malkovich, Enternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche New York, The Trial, plus one of your own, more low key, disturbing nightmares, and you're in the ballpark of where this is coming from. And finally, it comes to talking about Adam Sandler... because he for once, gives a very compelling, subtle, understated, brooding, twitchy, oppressed and introverted performance that it turns out he's really rather good at, and which was needed to sell this film, if it was to succeed. In all, this Noir-ish surreal rom-com is a refreshing change in subverting the usual rom-com ideas, even if it is nuts, and for that, you will probably either like it, or absolutely hate it, but I don't think this is ever going to be an all time favourite of anyone's... more a cult-classic / semi mythical movie hat will be spoken of in certain circles occasionally as being a benchmark of what the possibilities are within that genre, at least.... It's influence probably exceeds it's excellence, but for that reason, worth watching at least once in your life. 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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