Director Watch Podcast Ep. 21 – ‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002)

Welcome to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love. On episode 21 of the Director Watch Podcast, the boys are joined by Associate Editor of RogerEbert.com Robert Daniels to discuss the next film in their Paul Thomas Anderson series, Punch Drunk Love (2002).

Following his previous two features, PTA looked to strip things back, opting out of making another three-hour epic of storytelling, and instead making something that was ninety minutes. Hand selecting one of the biggest stars on the planet at the time in Adam Sandler, Anderson set out to make a unconventional romantic-comedy that challenged himself as a filmmaker to stay within the lines and parameters he personally set on himself. In doing so, he created what many consider to be his most underrated film of his career, with the best performance Sandler has within his career, In diving into Punch-Drunk Love, Ryan, Jay, and Robert explore their love of Sandler from this era, Barry and Lena’s relationship, an all-time supporting turn from the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, a minor discussion on Robert Altman’s Popeye, and puka shells.

You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more.

This podcast runs 1h33m. The guys will be back next week to continue their series covering the films of Paul Thomas Anderson with a review of his next film, There Will Be Blood. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)