7. Hard Eight/Sydney (Paul Thomas Anderson)
We move from a director who churns out a movie every year to one of the most meticulous directors working today: Paul Thomas Anderson. Also unlike Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson has the rare distinction of never making a lemon: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, and The Master are all very good (even very great) films. With only six feature films under his belt, Paul Thomas Anderson has already been called "The Orson Welles of our time" (by Ben Affleck, placing himself farther and farther away from Gigli every day). Hard Eight, PTA's first film, often gets dismissed now as the initial attempt of a filmmaking wunderkind as he was 26 at the time of its release. They say it was a noble experiment that was destined to be superseded by his later efforts. And Hard Eight (originally titled Sydney but later changed by the studio) clearly doesn't have the budget of Boogie Nights or Magnolia, but PTA nonetheless captures the film noir feel. Phillip Baker Hall plays a wise gambler/gangster that helps a young man (the magnificent John C. Reilly) get on his feet in Las Vegas. The movie also has excellent supporting characters, with Gwyneth Paltrow playing the love interest to Reilly's character, and Samuel L. Jackson playing the perfectly emasculated role of a crooked security guard. Paltrow's character in particular is given a depth not usually seen in these types of movies; she has more depth than the stereotypical "hooker with a heart of gold." While she is closer to Julianne Moore's character in Boogie Nights to the fearsome character played by Amy Adams in The Master, Paltrow's Clementine is given her own set of emotions to play with, rather than being the doting figure to be desired. Add in a hilarious cameo from Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a craps player with terrible hair and you get a movie that isn't the throwaway of an immature genius but a fully formed film by a master.