Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Essential Viewing

USA

Feature Film

Writer/Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Cinematographer: Robert Elswit

Composer: Jon Brion

Cast: Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Luis Guzmán, Karen Kilgariff, Mary Lynn Rajskub

Barry Egan – the only brother amongst eight siblings, who suffers from one or more anxiety disorders and runs a trading business of some sort – finds his life drastically altered, for better and worse, when he meets a sweet English girl, gets into trouble with a blackmailing phone-sex worker, and discovers a way to exploit an airmiles promotion, in Anderson’s hilarious, disquieting, and swooningly romantic film, a distinctively shot and scored one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Iain.Stott