“Highest level of artistic skill”: the 21st-century movie trilogy Paul Thomas Anderson called “unparalleled”
Paul Thomas Anderson has consistently made brilliant films since he emerged in the 1990s. He arrived at the perfect time, with Hollywood championing indie filmmaking with a newfound interest that hadn’t been present since the early 1970s, although it wasn’t like he was a stranger to the industry.
Having grown up in the San Fernando Valley with parents in showbiz (he was literally born in Los Angeles’ Studio City), there was never any doubt that he would end up with a job in Hollywood. Pretty spectacular, though, was his rise to fame as a director with a strong artistic vision, yet one simultaneously capable of making rather commercially accessible films.
That’s what makes Anderson’s work so popular – he brings his auteur approach to the mainstream, with movies like Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, and, most recently, One Battle After Another, all bringing show-stopping visuals and compelling character studies to the screen with the excitement of a blockbuster but the depth of something a little less Hollywood. Anderson knows how to pull out all the stops, but as demonstrated by something like Phantom Thread, he also knows when to rein it in.
All of that is to say that Anderson is an incredibly skilled filmmaker who has never forgotten the importance of true artistry, even when he has been given larger budgets and the scope to do something massive. So many directors get carried away when they’re suddenly given the chance to make a huge blockbuster, but Anderson has never forgotten the importance of bringing proper nuance to a story, no matter the size.
Despite this, he has never been given the chance to direct a series, as many of his contemporaries have. It’s hard to imagine Anderson signing on to a franchise or adapting some pre-existing superhero material, for example, and he admits that it’s not something that ever gets offered his way. There’s one director whom he believes to be a master of mixing artistry and commercial viability, though, and he greatly admires his work – of course, that would be Christopher Nolan.
The British director brought a newfound sense of acclaim to the superhero genre when he made the Batman Begins trilogy, which includes the legendary The Dark Knight, a film that many consider to be one of the greatest of the 2000s.
With a knockout performance from Heath Ledger as The Joker, for which he posthumously won an Oscar, the movie has attracted many dedicated fans since its release in 2008... “I’ve never really been asked to do that kind of thing,” Anderson once told an audience during a Q&A session in Melbourne.
Adding, “You look at what Christopher Nolan did with Batman, that’s like the meeting of the highest level of artistic skill and a kind of commerciality and appeal to a wide range of people, which is what anybody would want.”
The director went as far as to say, “It’s kind of unparalleled, actually, and they don’t come to me with those. And that’s alright.” While Anderson, like Nolan, certainly has the ability to blend these key components to make a successful hit, perhaps based on something like a beloved character, he is happy to keep working on his own movies.
At least he can appreciate the genius of Nolan’s approach to franchise filmmaking, which he believes has resulted in one of the greatest trilogies cinema has to offer.
