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-flier-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.
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Supplements
- Blossoms & Blood, a short 2002 piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, along with music by Jon Brion
- Interview with Jon Brion
- Program featuring behind-the-scenes footage of a recording session for the film’s soundtrack
- Conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake, used in the film
- Additional artwork by Blake
- Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2002
- NBC News interview from 2000 with David Phillips, “the pudding guy”
- Twelve Scopitones
- Deleted scenes
- Mattress Man commercial
- Trailers
- An essay by filmmaker, author, and artist Miranda July