Punch-Drunk Love

Paul Thomas Anderson | 2002 | ★★★★★
Afflicted with severe social anxiety and subject to fits of rage, Barry Egan, a Los Angeles based small businessman, forever harassed by his seven overbearing sisters, finds his life suddenly and drastically altered – for both the better and the worse – when he meets a sweet English girl, gets into trouble with a blackmailing phone-sex worker, and ingeniously discovers a way to exploit a flawed airmiles promotion. Enchanting performances, majestically offbeat scoring, tender photography, and disarming plotting combine to oft hilarious yet decidedly disquieting effect, in Anderson’s swooningly romantic, one-of-a-kind masterpiece.