"One Piece," Year Two (With Spoilers)

Spoilers ahead for the second season of the live action series, and the manga/anime up through the end of the Alabasta arc.

So, first things first.  Charithra Chandran is fantastic as Vivi.  Her switch from assassin to princess was note perfect.  I like Lera Abova as Robin so far, but since she hasn't dropped the Miss All Sunday persona yet, it's hard to know how she'll stack up long term.  I've never been much of a Chopper fan, but I have no complaints about Michaela Hoover, or the efforts of the VFX team bringing the cute reindeer doctor to life.  However, what I'm really impressed with is the characterization of the minor characters like the surprisingly loyal Mr. 9, a Twiggy-inspired Miss Valentine, and the menacing Mr. 3 and Miss Goldenweek (Sophia Anne Caruso).  They actually feel like real people instead of cartoon caricatures, which helps the show immensely.  

I'm not as invested in the "One Piece" arcs where the five main crewmembers aren't as involved, and I was pretty cool on this run of episodes in the anime.  The live action version does a much better job of keeping the crew front and center.  I was very happy that the show's creators gave us more character moments and crew interactions, like Usopp befriending Brogy, and Luffy connecting with Vivi.  Adding some foreshadowing for the later arcs, like Sanji talking about his mother, was also a good way to use the source material more fully.  I really like how these versions of the characters are progressing, and that they're allowed to be more human and well-rounded.  Zoro is probably the most improved from last year - the third episode is entirely devoted to his 100 enemy showdown - and he's allowed to smile and be friendlier.  Usopp is more heroic and less prone to being relegated to easy comic relief.  I was worried that Nami being sick during Drum Island would put her in the damsel in distress role, but that's not the case.  

The weaknesses of this season mostly have to do with the awkwardness of trying to adapt a bunch of shorter manga arcs that introduce a lot of characters, some much more interesting than others.  The story is more incidental and still building up to the next big storyline that we won't see until next year.  Wapol (Rob Colletti) is a comic villain who isn't very formidable, and not a great choice for the climactic baddie of the season.  While the action scenes have generally improved, they've also been uneven.  While Luffy had a few good fights this year, he's also noticeably less effective than we've seen in the past.  He gets rescued or assisted multiple times by other characters, and doesn't get the kind of big dramatic moments that some of the others do.  This should be fixed in the Alabasta arc where he gets more of the spotlight, but in this season it means Luffy often feels a little lost in the shuffle with so many other characters in play.       

Frankly, the Drum Island Arc didn't hold my interest.  It's where the limitations of the special effects and the unreality of the anime aesthetics were the most apparent.  Everything involving Chopper and Hiruluk was fine, and the Chopper backstory flashback episode was a highlight of the season.  However, similar to the Arlong Park episodes, the more extreme characters like Wapol and Dalton (Ty Keogh) were very difficult for me to take seriously  because they were buried under so many prosthetics and weird gimmicks.  Wapol and his monster army just looked silly, and the stakes never felt very high, so the whole finale underwhelmed.  I expect that it's largely an issue with the material in this arc in particular, though.  A stronger villain like Crocodile (Joe Manganiello) should help considerably.

Fundamentally, there are parts of "One Piece" that just aren't going to work in live action, no matter how high the budget is.  I like that the series is trying to push the boundaries and use more of the manga's visual language, but sometimes it just looks terrible.  There are also still translation and cultural gaps that result in awkward names and dialogue, things that probably could be fixed if the show weren't so adamant about catering to existing fans.  Still, the little details don't matter as long as the creators are getting the bigger things right.  So far, they're doing a pretty good job, and I'm looking forward to more "One Piece" to come.   

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"One Piece," Year Two (Without Spoilers)

With "Stranger Things" wrapped up, I expect that Netflix's next major event series will be "One Piece."  It has a huge existing fanbase thanks to the long-running manga and anime, and the Netflix series is one of the few live-action manga/anime adaptations that has been received well by both critics and fans.  Netflix has increased the budget significantly this season, which means bigger fights, crazier enemies, and a couple of full CGI characters in the mix.  

The show is shifting gears from a relatively self-contained first season to being an ongoing series, so there's a lot more setup and a lot less payoff this year.  The second season can be roughly divided into three smaller arcs.  The first is about the Straw Hat crew getting started in the Grand Line and setting up the new enemies.  There are a pair of new Marine antagonists, Captain Smoker (Callum Kerr) and the sword expert Tashigi (Julia Rehwald).  However, the main villains are the agents of the assassin group Baroque Works, who are code-named after numbers, days of the week, or holidays, like Miss All Sunday (Lera Abova), Miss Wednesday (Charithra Chandran), and Mr. 9 (David Lasker).  The second arc brings everyone to the prehistoric jungle island of Little Garden, where they meet giants Brogy (Brendan Murray) and Dorry (Werner Coetser).  The third takes them to the snowy Drum Island, the home of Dr. Kureha (Katey Sagal) and her student Chopper (Mikaela Hoover).  By the end of this season, Luffy and friends have new crew members and are on their way to confront a much bigger threat than anything they've faced so far.

If you thought that the first season of "One Piece" was cartoonish and over-the-top, the second season doubles down on every front.  The stunt sequences are more elaborate and involved.  The Devil Fruit superpowers are even stranger, with Miss Valentine (Jazzara Jaslyn) changing her body density at will so she can fly, Mr. 5 (Camrus Johnson) throwing explosive boogers, and Mr. 3 (David Dastmalchian) creating wax out of thin air, which he uses to turn his enemies into wax art.  Fully CGI characters like the whale Laboon and the critters at Little Garden appear more frequently.  However, the main cast stays pretty grounded in reality, and are super charismatic and entertaining as an ensemble.  I like the little personality tweaks that have been made, so Zoro is more easygoing and Usopp is more empathetic, even if his first instinct is always to run away.  

There are some stronger actors in the cast this year, who add some interesting shadings to what were previously pretty one-note players.  "One Piece" has a lot of minor characters who are only around for an arc or two, which means that bigger names like Katey Sagal and David Dastmalchian can guest star for a few episodes without it being too much of a commitment.  Mark Harelik as Chopper's mentor Dr. Hiruluk features in only one extended flashback episode, but is the standout of the season.  I really like Charithra Chandran and Lera Abova as two of the Baroque Works agents who end up at odds with each other.  Iñaki Godoy is probably the only one who feels a little underwhelming, and that's largely because Luffy doesn't get many big moments in this part of the story.  I expect this will change next season when he becomes more central to the plot again.  

And we already know that there will be a next season, which is important.  I didn't enjoy this set of episodes as much as the first because of the more open-ended nature of the source material, but there have been big improvements in the pacing, characterization, and adaptation choices which are going to greatly impact the show going forward.  You can tell that the creators are more comfortable in this universe now, and have a better understanding of what the audience will accept, so they're willing to take more risks.  Compared to the anime adaptations of these stories, I vastly prefer the live action version.  However, there are still a few elements that I feel could be improved.  I'll get more into that in the next post, where I look at this season from an existing fan's perspective, with all the spoilers, and how the rest of the series appears to be shaping up.    

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Trailers! Trailers! 2026 Summer Edition

Here is a quick sampling of some of the recent trailers that came out in the last few weeks.  I'm focusing on the smaller titles from later in the summer and early fall that I haven't had much opportunity to comment on yet.  

The End of Oak Street - This is David Robert Mitchell's film, previously titled "Flowervale Street," that was delayed from last year.  The trailer does a good job of setting expectations - this looks like it's going to be way more of a crowd-pleaser than I was expecting.  It's like to get some interest just by positioning itself as a dinosaur movie in a summer with no "Jurassic Park" sequel.  

Street Fighter - I like the look of the casting and the costuming, which is a lot closer to the original video game than any of the other adaptations I've seen.  Alas, the sight of David Dastmalchian as M. Bison can't help but make me a little sad that it's not Raul Julia.  I initially mistook this for the new "Mortal Kombat" film, because I got some of the characters confused, which should tell you something about the tone that they're going for.  

Forgotten Island - Asian girl led animated features have gotten really prominent since "KPop Demon Hunters" broke out last year.  Dreamworks' latest involves two Filipino besties who go to a magic island that threatens to take away their memories.  This seems like a tough sell to kids, so I'm not expecting it to do well.  However, I'm impressed that "Forgotten Island" got made, and by the same team that did "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish."

Idiots - O'Shea Jackson and Dave Franco doing a "Get Him to the Greek"/"The Last Detail" to get Mason Thames to rehab?  I'm down for that.  This was previously known as "The Shitheads," but that wasn't going to fly with theater owners and marketing people, so "Idiots" strikes me as a decent alt title.  I appreciate that the trailer just offers a taste of the depravity in store, and doesn't explain much.  Leaves me plenty to discover. 

Backrooms - This is what they mean by a vibes based horror movie.  The dread offered by the images of impossible interiors is so effective, I don't think the movie itself is going to be able to live up to them.  Good luck to first time filmmaker Kane Parsons and the wildly overqualified cast - Renata Reinsve's in this?  At least there's already been one horror movie with a similar premise that came out well - Genki Kawamura's "Exit 8."

Masters of the Universe - I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but if there are any unironic He-man fans still out there, at least this looks considerably better than the old Dolph Lundgren movie from the '80s, even if Jared Leto is playing Skeletor.  Travis Knight has a decent track record as a director, and the pictures of Alison Brie as Evil-Lyn currently in circulation are fabulous.  Are the kids going to respond to this though?  That's the big question.

Clayface - This is shaping up to be a full fledged horror movie set in James Gunn's DC universe.  I'm definitely not opposed to that, and the material is certainly ripe for it, but it also worries me that this is yet another DC property aimed mostly at adults.  Then again, the original Clayface appearances were some of the highlights of the '90s "Batman" cartoons.  With a modest budget and no stars, this is going to be an interesting experiment.  

The Invite - One of the big Sundance titles this year was Olivia Wilde's latest film, a remake of a Spanish comedy called "The People Upstairs."  Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, and Edward Norton seem like a promising combination, and the timing looks right after the similar "The Drama" cleaned up earlier in the year.  I'm rooting for this, because Wilde needs a win, and I want more smaller scale films like this up on the big screen.  

Minions & Monsters - I secretly prefer the "Minions" movies to the "Despicable Me" movies, and their latest movie looks frickin' adorable.  It's a monster movie pastiche featuring the Minions in 1920s Hollywood, trying to put together their own horror feature.  Does it make any sense with the timeline of the other movies?  Probably not, and I don't care.  The mini Cthulhu voiced by Trey Parker is already a winner.  Bring it on.

Coyote v ACME - It's everything I wanted and more.  I know that most of them are  probably only going to be cameos, but I loved seeing the Looney Tunes gang again in glorious traditional animation.  They all look so great!

Aaaaand… Dune Part Three - This looks very expensive.

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"Eternity" and "It Ends"

Here are two smaller, existential, high concept films that I want to recommend before they slip too far back in my memory.

The more cheerful, life affirming one is a movie about the afterlife.  Directed by David Freyne, and co-written by Freyne and Pat Cunnane, "Eternity" follows an elderly couple who have been married for sixty-five years when they die, and learn that they have to choose where to spend their eternal rest.  The deceased have a variety of different afterlives available to them, and help from "Afterlife Coordinators" like Anna (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) and Ryan (John Early) during the transition.  However, in the case of Joan (Elizabeth Olsen), she not only has to choose an afterlife, but who to spend it with - the man she was married to for decades, Larry (Miles Teller), or her first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who died young as a soldier.  

"Eternity" presents a vision of the afterlife that's a lot of fun.  The newly dead arrive in what looks like a 1960s conventional hall, full of salespeople trying to hawk different afterlives, ranging from eternity at the beach, to eternity with no men allowed, to eternity in Weimar German without the Nazis.  Joan and Larry are returned to the age they felt the most comfortable, which is when they were in their thirties, but their neighbor Karen (Olga Merediz) stays elderly.  We also learn that each eternity has an archive for its inhabitants to review old memories of their lives, which also comes in handy for exposition.  The amount of fun little details in the set designs, despite a limited budget, made me think of "The Good Place," though there's more similarity plotwise to something like "Defending Your Life." 

There's a lightness and optimism to "Eternity" which is a little old fashioned and very appealing.  Despite the big concepts, this turns out to be a romantic comedy at heart, where we spend most of the movie with Luke, trying to figure out how to make Joan fall in love with him again.  The performances are warm and winning, with Miles Teller continuing to make the case for himself as a solid cinema everyman, and Elizabeth Olsen being very charming.  "Eternity" hearkens back to much older supernatural films in the tradition of "A Matter of Life and Death" and "A Guy Named Joe," and it easily won me over.  It's currently at the top of my list of films I'd like to watch with older relatives.

Now on to a much less conventional indie film, "It Ends," which starts out as horror and morphs into something quite different.  Four twentysomething friends are in a car together, take a wrong turn, and end up on a road in a wooded area that never seems to end.  What's more alarming is that the foursome never seem to get tired, never need to eat or drink, their phones never run out of power, and the car never runs out of gas.  However, if they stop for too long, people will emerge from the woods to attack the car.  Their only choice is to keep driving.  At least, that's what they think is their only choice at first.  James (Phinehas Yoon), Day (Akira Jackson), Fisher (Noah Toth) and Mitchell (Tyler) all ultimately decide to deal with their extraordinary circumstances in different ways.  

"It Ends" is one of those films where the central premise is clearly meant to be treated as a metaphor for something profound, and the audience will take away as much meaning as they bring to it.  From a production standpoint, "It Ends" is a minimal, shoestring piece of work with very green actors and not the best technical bona fides. However, it's got some great ideas, and I like the way that it starts in such familiar genre territory and gradually subverts itself more and more.  It's also very good at capturing the mood of long car trips, and the dynamics of a friend group with a lot of history.  I think it'll resonate the most with viewers in their twenties who are at the same state of life as the protagonists, trying to figure out their path through life, and which relationships are worth fighting for as people in their lives start drifting away.  I had a great time with it.

"It Ends" also has the distinction of being one of the first films distributed by Letterboxd, which is starting to pick up smaller titles in danger of falling through the cracks.  I look forward to their future offerings with interest.

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The 2026 Summer Movie Wager

I am traditionally extremely bad at this, but I still have fun trying to guess how well the summer movies are going to do at the box office every year for the Summer Movie Wager.  Following the rules of the Summer Movie Pool, I'm going to predict the top ten domestic box office grossers of the season. It's not about which movies are the best or the most deserving, but which ones simply bring in the most cold hard cash.  Anything released between May 1st and Labor Day is fair game. Here we go.

1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day - The MCU has been having a rough time at the box office lately, but Spider-man is a marquee hero that is a franchise in and of himself.  We also haven't seen Tom Holland's Spidey onscreen since 2021, so this is definitely going to be an event.  I'm doing my best to steer clear of spoilers, but the new additions are promising, and the news of certain existing characters from the MCU making appearances in this film are even more promising.  

2. Moana - After "Lilo and Stitch" topped the summer box office last year, it's clear that the "Moana" remake has a massive potential audience.  It's only been a decade since the animated film, but "Moana" has consistently been a favorite on streaming, and Dwayne Johnson isn't getting any younger.  My only concern is that "Moana 2" wasn't very well liked, despite making so much money.  However, the Disney marketing machine will be going full force for this one.

3. The Odyssey - This is where I'm putting Christopher Nolan and Universal's massive gamble on a sword and sandals epic.  Never mind that Matt Damon hasn't had a hit in a long time, or that there have been complaints about the costuming and cinematography.  Nolan is going to ensure that this one is an event, and so many stars are crammed into the film that we're inevitably going to be hearing about it all summer long.  Do I think it will be good?  Does that matter?  

4. Minions & Monsters - Illumination's The "Despicable Me" franchise has traditionally done very well with young audiences, with the last three films all earning in the $300 million range domestically.  In a weaker year this would be higher up in the rankings, but I think that the competition is good enough that a new Minions movie won't be a top priority for most viewers.  I am curious as to whether the Gentleminions will make their return, however, after making a splash in 2022.

5. The Devil Wears Prada 2 - This is my riskiest bet, but women's films have a long history of surprising at the box office, and when it comes to Millennial nostalgia, few movies of this era are as iconic in pop culture as the original "The Devil Wears Prada."  There are already a ton of takes on the fashion glimpsed in the trailers, and the extraordinary cast list.  Is Anne Hathaway going to become overexposed this year?  Absolutely, but it'll be a fun trip getting there.  

6. Toy Story 5 - Ignoring the "Lightyear" flop, this should be higher up in the list, because "Toy Story" generally outperforms "Despicable Me" domestically, even with the long breaks.  There's also been an excellent teaser trailer with a great hook - toys versus screens!  However, my instinct is to be cautious after the audience's reception to PIXAR's last few films.  I'm not counting Woody and Buzz out completely, but I think they have an uphill battle.  

7. The Mandalorian and Grogu - It is very tough to tell what the audience appetite is for more "Star Wars" at this point, but I think there's enough goodwill toward "The Mandalorian" specifically that this should be a modest hit, leaning toward younger audiences.  I'm still seeing plenty of kids with Grogu merchandise.  However, I don't think it'll be a bigger hit without something more exciting to show than Jeremy Allen White playing a new Hutt villain.  

8. Backrooms - I'm guessing this is going to be the big breakout horror film this year. It's based on a viral internet creepypasta and subsequent short film that garnered a huge amount of attention. It's easily got the most hype out of any other horror title this year, especially among younger audiences, and is almost certainly going to make money. However, I doubt it'll be enough of a crossover hit to make it very high in the rankings, so I'm putting it in eighth.

9. Disclosure Day - We are long past the days of Steven Spielberg movies automatically being blockbuster gold.  However, there are occasionally films for older audiences that manage to break into the top ten list, and that's what I think "Disclosure Day" might do if it gets the right reception.  The lack of big stars and Spielberg's diminished presence over the last few years isn't helping any, but I'll always look forward to a new Spielberg movie about aliens.  

10. Supergirl - I really, really want this to do well, but looking at the recent track record of woman-led superhero films and DC films, this is where I have to put "Supergirl."  Maybe Jason Momoa's Lobo will raise some interest, and maybe the reviews will turn some heads, but right now I don't see how the math works out.  Frankly, it's a win that this movie got made to begin with, and it's my most anticipated big-budget film of the summer by far.  

Wild Cards (for extra points if one of them does make it into the top ten)

Masters of the Universe

Scary Movie 6

Mortal Kombat II

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My Top 25 of the Last 25: Out of the Box Casting

This list is going to require some explanation before we get started.  One of the major changes in the media of the new-ish millennium is that over the last fifteen years, Hollywood has embraced colorblind and genderblind casting in a big way.  Sometimes this has been great, opening up roles and opportunities for actors who never would have been considered in the past.  Sometimes this has led to terrible misfires, which I won't dwell on here.  Some have argued that the emphasis on diversity has gone too far, and some think we haven't gone far enough. In any case, this has definitely been a major characteristic of Western media in recent times, and I want to discuss it in the form of a list.  

As with the other Top 25 Lists, this list has 25 entries, but only the top ten get write-ups.  Entries are unranked.  

Hamilton - Theater has always been better about diverse casting than movies or television, and I strongly suspect that the most influential driver of more diverse casting across the whole media landscape was the success of "Hamilton" in 2015.  Suddenly we had black and brown actors playing the founding fathers, turning their cabinet meetings into rap battles, and it was a smash hit.  The now legendary cast was perfect for a show about "America then, as told be America now," and I'm thrilled every time I see any of them in other projects.

Aquaman - It was a long-running joke that Aquaman had the worst powers in the Justice League, because he was an ocean-themed superhero who talked to fish.  However, casting an actor known for playing badasses as Aquaman in the DCEU made Aquaman a badass character.  Jason Momoa looks nothing like the classic version of Aquaman, who is a blond with terrible fashion sense, but ten years after his debut in "Batman v. Superman," it's hard to imagine Aquaman being played by anybody else.  Are we getting that third "Aquaman" movie?  

Starbuck - I didn't watch "Battlestar Galactica" during its initial release, but the controversy over one of the main characters, Starbuck, being gender-flipped from a man to a woman definitely reached my ears.  The new Starbuck, Kara Thrace, is a completely different character whose only connection to the older version is that she's a hotshot pilot with a maverick personality.  And she's one of the clear highlights of the new "Battlestar Galactica," which ended up totally eclipsing the old show and helping to mainstream genre television in the 2000s.  

Death - Several characters in "The Sandman" had their genders and races changed in adaptation, but none were as prominent as Death, who was the most popular character from the original comic, and known for her appearance as a pale-skinned Goth girl.  However, it's difficult to imagine anybody better in the role than Kirby Howell-Baptiste, who totally embodies the warmth and the empathy of this version of Death, greeting every soul under her care like a dear friend.  Her too-brief introduction is the best part of the series by far.  

Elphaba - This is an interesting case, because while the original actress for the Wicked Witch of the West was white, the character herself is green.  Still casting a black actress in the movie version was novel, as the stage production of "Wicked" didn't have its first black Elphaba until 2025.  And I so appreciate that  Cynthia Erivo made wardrobe and styling choices that emphasized her heritage in the film version, making the character her own.  I'm not a big fan of "Wicked," but I am a big fan of Elphaba, and Erivo's version of her in particular.  

Louis and Claudia - Many changes were made to AMC's version of "Interview With the Vampire."  Louis de Pointe du Lac now inhabits a different era, profession and social reality as a black man.  Race and status are major parts of Louis' identity and inform his struggle to adjust to life as a vampire, as well as his relationship to Lestat.  Similarly, the new version of Claudia is now a little older, a little smarter, and far more complex.  Her search for other vampires is an extension of her search for answers about her own identity and place in the world.    

The Doctor - We've now had female and black Doctors headlining "Doctor Who," and though the show has had its ups and downs, the Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa versions of The Doctor have never been anything less than excellent.  I especially enjoy Gatwa's very stylish fashion choices and refusal to stick to one outfit.  I also want to point out that we've gotten a superb female version of The Master, played by Michelle Gomez, and a pleasantly hammy one played by Sacha Dhawan.  Oh, and getting Archie Panjabi for the Rani was very satisfying.

Christine Baskets - In case you thought there weren't going to be any straight white men on this list, I would like to remind you that Louie Anderson won an Emmy in 2016 for playing Zach Galifianakis's mom on "Baskets."  Based on Anderson's mother, Christine is a warmly maternal, ever-optimistic woman whose life keeps being thrown into turmoil thanks to the antics of her ridiculous adult son.  Their relationship is the most important part of "Baskets," and Anderson's committed performance is easily the best part of the show.  

Hitler - Depictions of Adolf Hitler have to be handled with care, and Taika Waititi (a self described "Polynesian Jew") deciding to cast himself in the role for "Jojo Rabbit" was certainly a creative choice.  However, it also turned out to be a canny one, setting the farcical tone for his WWII coming-of-age comedy, and getting the audience to completely drop their guard.  Waititi doesn't make for a great Hitler, but you can see how a deeply confused Hitler Youth might have come up with a skewed version of the Fuhrer that acts like this one.

Melanie  - I don't expect that many people have heard of the UK zombie film "The Girl With All the Gifts," or the novel of the same name that it was based on.  However, a major difference between the two versions is that Melanie is fair skinned in the book and dark skinned in the film.  This adds a racial dimension to the story that is both thematically appropriate to the story, and allows for the casting of the excellent newcomer Sennia Nanua as Melanie.  

Tulip O'Hare ("Preacher")

Nick Fury ("The Avengers")

Hedda Gabbler ("Hedda")

Watson ("Elementary")

Ariel ("The Little Mermaid")

Anybodys ("West Side Story")

Fabulous Godmother ("Cinderella")

Michelle Fuller ("Bugonia")

Catwoman and Harlequin (various DC)

Matlock

Valkyrie (MCU)

David Copperfield and Gawain

The Duke of Hastings ("Bridgerton")

Macbeth ("The Tragedy of Macbeth")

The Wiz

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My Favorite Paul Thomas Anderson Film

I'm frequently left slightly off-balance by Paul Thomas Anderson movies.  I enjoy and admire them, because Anderson is one of the best filmmakers currently working, but I'm never quite sure if I get them the way that he means for me to.  Are the elements that I take seriously supposed to be funny?  Am I missing major themes or ideas that haven't been spelled out for me?  Things that are left open to interpretation sometimes make me feel anxious that I'm interpreting them wrong.  Everything is connected in "Magnolia," but I'm almost certain that there are connections that I missed somewhere.

The only Paul Thomas Anderson film I don't feel this way towards is "Punch-Drunk Love," and that's because I enjoy it so much that I don't much care if I am missing anything.  It is unabashedly a movie romance, filled with big emotions, vibrant colors, indelible images, and grandiose expressions of love.  It also stars Adam Sandler, made back in 2002 when Adam Sandler was a movie star known for playing one particular type of aggressive man-child character in his movies.  He's playing a variation on that same character in this movie too, but the difference is that in "Punch-Drunk Love," this is a liability.  The universe does not reward Barry Egan for his outbursts of violence or his juvenile behavior, until he finds a reason to change his life, and turn his worst habits to his advantage.

The Roger Ebert review of "Punch-Drunk Love" is legendary for Ebert changing his negative opinion of Adam Sandler once he saw Sandler in a role that gave him the ability to play a full-fledged human being.  For me, as someone who avoided the early Sandler comedies, it was a signal that Sandler was an actor that I should be paying attention to.  It was "Punch-Drunk Love" that made me a fan of his, and Barry Egan is still my favorite of his characters by far.  In Barry I could see all the loneliness, frustration, rage, and fear that drove his destructive behavior.  And for the first time, I could see and appreciate the sweetness and the wonder mixed in there too.  I shared his delight at finding an abandoned harmonium and the loophole in an airline mile giveaway program.  I rooted for him when he threw caution to the wind and followed the lovely Lena to Hawaii.

"Punch-Drunk Love" is also one of the most beautiful films of its era, thanks to Anderson and cinematographer Robert Elswit.  There's a lot of experimentation going on with light temperature, shape, and silhouette to make the visual contrasts especially bold.  There's a very limited color palette and the major colors are all associated with various emotions and characters - Barry is blue and Lena is red.  The action is broken up by abstract collages of bright colors, created by Jeremy Blake.  Once you start looking, there are stripes and blocks of color all over the place, and they all look amazing.  Even the lens flares look gorgeous.  The recurring aural motif is Shelly Duvall's kitschy "He Loves Me," from Robert Altman's notorious "Popeye" movie, and it's a goddamned delight.  

I've come to appreciate Paul Thomas Anderson's other films, to varying degrees, but "Punch-Drunk Love" remains my favorite, probably because it's so declarative and unsubtle.  We're meant to root for the guy to get the girl and stand up to the evil mattress salesman played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.  We want to see red and blue come together, and for color to chase away the images of blank walls and empty gray streets.  We want love to conquer all, and here it's allowed to.  There are Anderson films with smarter writing, better performances, and more accomplished filmmaking, but "Punch-Drunk Love" has what I love most about movies, which is that it provokes a purity of emotion that you just don't get anywhere else.

What I've Seen - Paul Thomas Anderson

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)

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