Hard Eight

Review: This has got to be the best Paul Thomas Anderson film I’ve seen. Okay, a super embarrassing admission that I’ve been hesitant to state publicly is that while prepping for ‘One Battle After Another’ I realized I’d never actually seen a PTA movie. I knew that ‘There Will Be Blood’ was one that had alluded me, but didn’t realize I hadn’t seen any of the director’s filmography. So I decided to change that. Anderson has a fairly short filmography, with his upcoming release being his 10th feature film, so it should be pretty digestible for me to make my way through. And I’m going to go chronologically. This film is a killer directorial debut and I don’t think you’d be able to even tell it was the director’s first crack. Starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson, & Gwyneth Paltrow (plus a brief appearance from PTA’s future frequent collaborator, Philip Seymour Hoffman), the film lets all 4 actors flex their acing muscles pretty well. It’s always interesting seeing Reilly in more serious films because I feel like people forget that he is actually a pretty versatile actor. Within the subcategory of Vegas movies, this is definitely one of the best I’ve seen, leveraging it’s Las Vegas setting really well, but not leaning too heavily on it.

High: Even though I hadn’t clocked any of his movies, I knew PTA had the sauce. I was not familiar however with Philip Baker Hall’s game. His performance was certainly the highlight of the film, along with Anderson’s direction.

Low: I mean, if I had to pick a low I’d say that I wish Philip Seymour Hoffman had a little more screentime. He was great in one scene, apparently improvising most of his lines. I don’t really think his character needed to do anything else, he served his purpose well, but more Hoffman is never a bad thing.

Rating: (Hard)8/10