6. Hard Eight (1996)
Hard Eight was Paul Thomas Anderson's feature length debut back in 1996 and it signalled the arrival of one of the greatest directors of his generation. For his debut, he manages to get Philip Baker Hall, Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow to give his film some legitimate star-power, but problems with funding and distribution led to the film barely being released. It's the weakest film in Anderson's catalogue by far. That's not to say it is a bad film - far from it, in fact - but in hindsight it feels like a debut film, as none of the typical Anderson flourishes or bravado are present here. The film is centred around the relationship between John, played by John C. Reilly and Sydney, played by Philip Baker Hall. Sydney becomes a surrogate father to John and guides him up from the ditches and into a successful career as a hustler. It is never explicitly explained why Sydney felt the urge to take John under his wing but it strongly hints at something that would change the course of the whole film and the audience's view on Philip Baker Hall's character. Anderson's talent for writing dialogue is on display throughout Hard Eight and so is his uncanny knack of getting great performances out of actors as he even makes Gwyneth Paltrow look decent. It is by far the safest and most conventional of his films, but there is a great originality to it. Hard Eight shows signs of the master auteur that would be unleashed with Boogie Nights and it is one of the finest debut pictures of recent years.