mdblist.com logo The Best Paul Thomas Anderson Directed Movies


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poster
Kanopy
86
8.2
/696668/
80
/13359/
80
/7161/
4.5
/1139536/
91
/244/
86
/36702/
93
/42/
cc age 16+

There Will Be Blood (2007)
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
poster
HBO Max Amazon Channel
85
7.8
/247336/
74
/8978/
74
/2193/
4.3
/1652316/
95
/427/
85
/1995/
95
/63/
cc age 16+

One Battle After Another (2025)
Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
poster
85
7.9
/301280/
77
/6546/
76
/3421/
4.2
/581689/
91
/158/
89
/6370/
86
/28/
cc age 18+

Boogie Nights (1997)
Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams, a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams' rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, "Dirk Diggler". Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams' dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.
poster
83
8.0
/346546/
77
/6268/
77
/3846/
4.2
/507944/
82
/218/
89
/10075/
78
/34/
cc age 17+

Magnolia (1999)
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
poster
81
7.4
/159004/
72
/5647/
73
/3677/
4.2
/577658/
91
/359/
71
/918/
90
/51/
cc age 15+

Phantom Thread (2017)
In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker's meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse intensifies.
poster
78
7.1
/156601/
69
/5810/
69
/2527/
3.5
/741044/
90
/326/
65
/548/
90
/55/
cc age 15+

Licorice Pizza (2021)
The story of Gary Valentine and Alana Kane growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
poster
Kanopy
77
7.3
/194929/
71
/4930/
71
/2614/
4.0
/633921/
79
/201/
78
/6605/
78
/37/
cc age 17+

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
A socially awkward and volatile small business owner meets the love of his life after being threatened by a gang of scammers.
poster
MGM Plus
76
7.1
/59553/
70
/1406/
68
/931/
3.6
/124189/
82
/89/
83
/857/
78
/14/

Hard Eight (1997)
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
poster
Netflix
80
73
7.6
/14536/
72
/812/
72
/458/
4.0
/96136/
100
/22/
85
/16/

Anima (2019)
In a short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke of Radiohead stars in a mind-bending visual piece. Best played loud.
poster
Kanopy
73
7.1
/198557/
70
/4995/
71
/3190/
4.0
/428405/
85
/257/
62
/3891/
86
/43/
cc age 17+

The Master (2012)
Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.
poster
71
6.6
/118191/
64
/3771/
65
/2631/
3.6
/239735/
73
/252/
53
/1364/
81
/43/
cc age 18+

Inherent Vice (2014)
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.
poster
72
57
7.3
/1867/
66
/49/
69
/55/
3.7
/5746/
86
/194/
65
/1236/

Mattress Man Commercial (2003)
Paul Thomas Anderson spoofs the famous 1980s Mattress Man commercial outtake using Dean Trumbell, the character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Anderson's 'Punch-Drunk Love,’ as he promotes his mattress company by performing a stunt that doesn't go all that well.
poster
78
57
7.2
/2386/
74
/83/
72
/64/
3.7
/7920/
100
/19/
79
/4/
78
/6/

Junun (2015)
A documentary capturing the creation of the album Junun inside Rajasthan’s 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort. Paul Thomas Anderson follows Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur, Nigel Godrich, and the Rajasthan Express as they record a cross-cultural fusion of Indian, Israeli, and Western music.
poster
67
47
7.0
/2320/
63
/52/
66
/48/
3.5
/9399/

Cigarettes & Coffee (1993)
At a desert diner, the lives of five strangers become linked through a single twenty-dollar bill. Shot for $20,000 and starring Philip Baker Hall, the short premiered at Sundance and later inspired Anderson’s debut feature Hard Eight (1996).
poster
57
34
5.9
/1315/
55
/36/
51
/35/
3.2
/3388/

The Dirk Diggler Story (1988)
A mockumentary short film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson at age seventeen. Presented as a behind-the-scenes television profile, it chronicles the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a well-endowed porn star whose fame and fortune spiral into drug abuse and tragedy. Modeled on real-life adult film actor John Holmes, the film serves as an early prototype for Anderson’s later feature Boogie Nights (1997).
poster
45
30
4.5
/1563/
40
/48/
46
/53/
2.5
/6684/

Couch (2003)
A short black-and-white comedy starring Adam Sandler, in which a man shops for a new couch at a Levitz furniture store. Filmed on 35mm in Chatsworth, California, it was released online in 2003.
poster
28
?
5.2
/104/
13
/3/
20
/1/

Production Assistant (1992)
In 1992, Anderson was knee-deep at night in devising what would eventually become “Boogie Nights,” but during the day he worked as a production assistant on “Sworn To Vengeance,” a telefilm thriller starring Robert Conrad. From this gig sprang a brief, fascinating clip of the future director giving viewers a tour of the different departments on-set, from transpo to catering and make-up/wardrobe.
poster
?
6.1
/100/
40
/2/
56
/3/

Flagpole Special (1998)
Commissioned for Creative Time’s RET.inevitable in 1998, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Flagpole Special is a DV short showing John C. Reilly and Chris Penn from the waist down, riffing on pickup-seminar bravado that anticipates Magnolia’s “Seduce and Destroy.” Screened once under the Brooklyn Bridge and never released, it’s now regarded as a lost film.
poster
53
?
50
/13/
50
/6/

Ballchewer (2002)
Part of Adam Sandler’s informal “Meatball Series,” Ballchewer (2002) was shot during the making of Punch-Drunk Love. The short shows Luis Guzmán playing chess with Sandler’s pit bull, Meatball, while Emily Watson brings them beers.
poster
?

Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Western Musical Project
Plot TBA.
poster
?

Production Assistant (1992)
Anderson wanders the set of the Robert Conrad movie Sworn to Vengeance, asking various crew departments about their work and which one is the most important while generally being very snarky and making Clinton jokes.
poster
?

The Jon Brion Show (1999)
The concept of the show is that Brion will play accompaniment to his guest, sometimes inviting other performers on stage to assist. Like the regular Friday night shows that Brion performed at the club Largo in Los Angeles at the time, the performance is largely improvised. Those Largo performances, displaying the depth of Brion’s pop knowledge and musicianship, were huge successes. And in this instance, with Smith, the result is one amazing musical moment after another.


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