"Punch Drunk Love" (2002) Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

“I want you to know that I wanted to kiss you just then”.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s fourth cinematic masterpiece is an underrated piece of pure joy. Here’s a dissection of the bizarre opening ten minutes that will tell you so little about the film you’ll simply have to watch it for yourself. With no opening credits whatsoever the film opens on a long shot of “Barry Egan” (Adam Sandler) clad in a blue suit sitting at an office desk in an empty, barely furnished office in an industrial estate. The long shot frames Barry in the corner of the bare room, with a distinctive partial blue nominal strip of paint breaking up the otherwise staid, neutral coloured wall. In the middle of a telephone call, Barry is pedantic about a coupon offer, frustrated and apathetic at the responses received he exits the office into a very early morning stillness.

Staring at the exit gate of the industrial estate, the camera pans away from Barry and continues to move, slowly swooping (a familiar pattern throughout the film) out of the gates and into a deserted, still and quiet road. It’s interesting to note both the pale blue “hue” that surrounds Barry and the complete lack of any sound as he approaches the exit gates until a passing car overturns unexpectedly and spectacularly, breaking the complete silence, as does a delivery van that swiftly drops off a piano at the kerbside and drives off.

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The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "Punch Drunk Love" and one of my earliest forays into film writing and film appreciation over a decade ago. This review was originally penned and published over a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 14th January 2023 and can now be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and original updated article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/punch-drunk-love-2002-aaae152e5138

This spoiler free review is also integral to volume 4 in my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Currently only available as an e-book, all 7 exhaustive volumes of multiple spoiler free film reviews are priced at £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package you can read each and every volume for free.

Volume 4

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All 7 Volumes Series

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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