Paul Thomas Anderson

American appetite in long form. Anderson writes damaged, driven men and the people who attach to them, moving from sprawling ensembles to tighter chamber work without losing the sense that something is about to go badly wrong.

Signature

• Long, propulsive tracking shots.
• Ensemble structures resolved by coincidence or catastrophe.
• Surrogate father-son dynamics and destructive mentorship.
• Score used abrasively against the image.