Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson • 2002 • United States
Starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Chaos lurks in every corner of this giddily off-kilter foray into romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson. Struggling to cope with his erratic temper, novelty-toilet-plunger salesman Barry Egan (Adam Sandler, demonstrating remarkable versatility in his first dramatic role) spends his days collecting frequent-flyer-mile coupons and dodging the insults of his seven sisters. The promise of a new life emerges when Barry inadvertently attracts the affection of a mysterious woman named Lena (Emily Watson), but their budding relationship is threatened when he falls prey to the swindling operator of a phone sex line and her deranged boss (played with maniacal brio by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Fueled by the careening momentum of a baroque-futurist score by Jon Brion, the Cannes-award-winning PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE channels the spirit of classic Hollywood and the whimsy of Jacques Tati into an idiosyncratic ode to the delirium of new romance.
Up Next in Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman
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Synecdoche, New York
Directed by Charlie Kaufman • 2008 • United States
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Jason LeighPhilip Seymour Hoffman stars in Charlie Kaufman’s magnum opus as Caden Cotard, a theater director whose life catering to suburban blue-hairs at the local regional theater in ...
