Paul Thomas Anderson has only made six films in roughly 20 years so it may seem odd that I'm calling him the greatest director of his generation when people like Tarantino, Fincher, Soderbergh and the Coen brothers have made not only more films than he has but have received more acclaim than he has as well. This is worth consideration but ultimately unimportant to me. Every time Paul Thomas Anderson puts out a film you can be assured it will either be a masterpiece or of extremely high quality, and quite simply, the same can't be said for the other directors I've mentioned. As much as I love them they all have at least one movie to their credit that just isn't up to par with everything else they've done. Every film Anderson makes is either better than the one before it or a vast departure for him, and the four included here are the perfect testament to his genius...
4. The Master
The Master was not only the best film of 2012 but one of the best films of the last few years: it is perfect testament to the fact that Paul Thomas Anderson is not only every bit as amazing as he was when he started but that he's grown exponentially as a filmmaker since his debut film Hard Eight (or Sydney). The Master is one of the most well directed films you're likely to see from mainstream cinema this decade and looks to be well on its way to be included in the list of masterpieces that got snubbed at the Oscars. The main reason this film is included in this list is the fact that it shows that Anderson is not content to make the same types of films over and again and that he has the ability to give each of his films its own distinctive feeling. The film is unlike anything Anderson has made before but it also has a sense of familiarity and fits perfectly in his filmography. The Master is certainly his most ambiguous film to date and proof that Anderson can make films unlike any that his peers are putting out.