2. Paul Thomas Anderson
Directed Memorable Performances in: Punch Drunk Love (2002) and
The Master (2012)Best of the Best: Daniel Day-Lewis in
There Will Be Blood (2007) The heir-apparent to Kubrick's legacy of high-craft in the art of film, Anderson has proven to be one of the very finest filmmaker's working since the Master Director's passing in 1999. Starting his career with giant ensemble multi-layered dramas such as
Boogie Nights and
Magnolia, Anderson has taken a different course in this new century with intimate male character studies. Casting Adam Sandler of all people as the lead in his story of alienation, self-discovery and self-expression in
Punch Drunk Love, marked the beginning of a turning point for the auteur. His works would now be concentrating on the exploits of singular characters focusing in on the traits and actions that make up who they are. Just last year he made what I considered the best in very strong year for cinema in
The Master, an examination of a cult behavioral's mechanics during post-WWII America (which is absolutely NOT scientology...). Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman play the reluctant student and over0bearing teacher as unlike any other relationship I've seen in a movie. Each feeding off each other in psychological dependency, engaging a serious question about people we allow into our lives and how much control they exude on us, and vice-versa.
However, there is perhaps no stronger character he has created on-screen than the great Daniel Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview. A man bereft of anything in normal human needs, except the need for oil and the profits thereof. Lewis arguably has never been better than as the single-mindedly determined oil tycoon, divorced of family and faith. Indeed, it is the Charles Foster Kane performance of the 21st century, towering and unrelentingly powerful. More than deserving of his second oscar for lead actor. As for the director, we can only wait anxiously, perhaps while 'drinking a milkshake', for his next project.