Christopher Nolan names the best Paul Thomas Anderson movie
Sending shockwaves through cinema and mainstream culture with all the power of a nuclear bomb, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer looks set to be not just one of the greatest films of the decade but of the 21st century. After the slightest dip in quality with Tenet in 2020, Nolan is back and better than ever, turning in what many are calling his magnum opus and cementing his status (as if he needed to) as one of the prominent contemporary auteurs alongside the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson.
Unlike Tarantino, who is as much a film critic and historian as he is a filmmaker, Nolan’s thoughts on other films aren’t readily available. Sure, he’s publically endorsed Barbie with the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomena, but that’s largely a celebration of how both films are drawing audiences to the theatres by the millions. This tight-lipped approach to his contemporary filmmakers makes it all the more exciting that he not only praised Anderson, but singled out the film that he thought was the director’s best.
As part of Konbini’s Vidéo Club, where various celebrities are given a tour around a ‘video shop’ and invited to pick out DVDs that pique their interest, Nolan was joined by Oppenheimer lead and frequent collaborator Cillian Murphy. Together, they traversed the history of cinema itself, using physical media as a springboard for discussions on their favourite contributions to the medium. Coming across a copy of an Anderson film, Nolan was compelled to stop and remark on it, saying, “Ah. There Will Be Blood. Excellent film. I think Paul’s best.”
It shouldn’t be too shocking that Nolan regards Anderson’s fifth film as his creative triumph. Released in 2007, There Will Be Blood was immediately recognised as an unparalleled work of cinematic genius. Drawing equally from the likes of John Huston’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre in 1948 and the Robert Altman classic 1971’s McCabe & Mrs Miller, Anderson presented his take on the western genre.
It was a broody and sprawling yet intimate saga, chronicling one industrious man at the peak of the oil boom in 1920s California. At the centre of it all is Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as Daniel Plainview, the relentlessly ambitious oilman whose greed ultimately ends up poisoning everything he touches. As both Nolan and Murphy agree, Day-Lewis’ portrayal is “unbelievable”.
As for where Murphy places There Will Be Blood on his list, he admitted that one further Anderson title competes for the top place. “I mean, I do love Punch-Drunk Love as well,” he confessed. “For me, it would be between those two.” The 2002 Adam Sandler-led film was ostensibly a romantic comedy, but in classic Anderson tradition, played out in a distinctly genre-defying way.
As for Anderson’s thoughts on Nolan’s top film? The Californian director is as notoriously quiet about other films as Nolan is, except for his recent endorsement of Joachim Trier’s 2021 film The Worst Person in the World as “the best film in the world”. It’s hard to imagine that a director like Anderson hasn’t yet lined up to watch Oppenheimer, so perhaps we don’t have too long to wait for his own verdict on what Nolan’s best film is.
