Paul Thomas Anderson’s Favorite Films: Over 35 Movies the Director Wants You to See

“Something Wild” (1986)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s love for Jonathan Demme was enshrined with “Something Wild,” the 1986 action comedy starring Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Liotta. “He was the first filmmaker who made me feel it was within reach. What I mean by that is: He didn’t, he didn’t over shazam it, but he put some spit on it too. So it’s cinematic but it’s grounded as well,” Anderson once told Rolling Stone. “I mean, ‘Something Wild’ was just a gigantic turning point for me when I saw it: how loose you could be with the rulebook. You know, having people look into the camera, having three different songs play at one time, simply ending your film on Sister Carol looking into the lens and nodding and wagging her finger. I mean, that’s fucking amazing to me.”

“One other thing that I really like about his work is, everybody had a story in the frame. There was no bullshit background; no one was an accident. Look out the window right now. [Points to a passerby talking on his phone] That man right there walking by with his phone – Jonathan would have somebody playing that out. It was never somebody just walking right past. He cared about everybody.”

“Putney Swope” (1969)

Paul Thomas Anderson is such a fan of Robert Downey Sr.’s 1969 satirical comedy “Putney Swope” that he joined the writer-director for a discussion on the film on behalf of the Criterion Collection’s “Up All Night With Robert Downey Sr.” box set release. In the film, Downey Sr. takes aim at corporate marketing culture and New York City’s Madison Avenue by telling the story of an African American activist who is given a free hand at an ad agency. Anderson dropped a Downey Sr. cameo into “Boogie Nights,” and even referenced “Putney Swope” in the film by naming Don Cheadle‘s character, Buck Swope, after the movie.

“The Hateful Eight” (2015)

Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are linked through their love of large format filmmaking. Tarantino presented “The Hateful Eight” in a 70mm roadshow format, while Anderson also had 70mm prints of “The Master” and “Inherent Vice” released in theaters. During a discussion with Tarantino on the power of large format filmmaking, Anderson praised “The Hateful Eight” for using 70mm film to turn the intimate scope of Tarantino’s film into a grand epic.

“The best special effect you can have is a great actor,” Anderson said. “Samuel L. Jackson is a better special effect than any fucking special effect. Jennifer Jason Leigh beats a spaceship any day. She’s a special effect of her own. Somewhere along the line it became that you go along and shoot vistas with large format film, and there’s plenty of vistas in Quentin’s film. But it’s an interior film and that’s ok. When you see those performances, when you see the staging Quentin’s able to do in this claustrophobic room, it feels epic to me. It’s pretty interior, but it’s epic…There’s a magnificence in seeing it.”

“Big Daddy” (1999)

By the time Paul Thomas Anderson got to work with Adam Sandler on “Punch-Drunk Love” he was already a massive fan of the comedy superstar. “I particularly love ‘Big Daddy,’ more so than ‘Billy Madison,’” Anderson said during a visit to Bill Simmons’ podcast. “I liked ‘Billy Madison,’ but by the time I got to ‘Happy Gilmore’ I was like, ‘Oh, my god.’ And then I think I graduated to obsession level with ‘Big Daddy.’ It was a little bit more polished, it was able to be sincere and [mix in] the crazy fucking dirty shit that Sandler likes to do and got the mix really right.”

“Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955)

Paul Thomas Anderson once famously cited John Sturges’ 1955 thriller “Bad Day at Black Rock” when giving out advice to aspiring young filmmakers, saying, “Work your way up, save your money, and forget film school. Go watch ‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ and listen to John Sturges’ commentary and you’ll learn more about filmmaking than 4 years of going to school.” Sturges’ movie mixes the noir and Western genres in telling the story of a mysterious drifter who shakes up life in a southwest town after he arrives looking for one of its residents.

“The Bitter Tea of General Yen” (1933)

While attending the New York Film Festival in 2014, Paul Thomas Anderson said he had recently watched Frank Capra’s 1933 romance “The Bitter Tea of General Yen” and immediately fell in love with it. Anderson raved, “I would start with Barbara Stanwyck. She’s the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen in my life. Stunning actress. But if there is a reason for film lighting to be something that is an art form that we continue to do, that we struggle for: look at that film! Look at those sets!”

“The Big Sleep” (1946)

It was Paul Thomas Anderson’s love of meandering detective films like Howard Hawks’ “The Big Sleep” that inspired him to take a stab at adapting Thomas Pynchon’s “Inherent Vice” for the big screen. As Anderson said at the New York Film Festival in 2014, “‘The Big Sleep’ is impossible to follow, but it doesn’t matter. You just want to keep watching it, living in it, seeing where it goes. That’s what we wanted from ‘Inherent Vice.'” Hawks’ 1946 film, adapted from the Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, is considered one of the greatest film noirs and stars Humphrey Bogart as the detective Philip Marlowe.

“The Birdcage” (1996)

Paul Thomas Anderson cited Mike Nichols’ “The Birdcage” as his “go-to comfort movie” during a Reddit AMA. The 1996 comedy famously pairs Robin Williams and Nathan Lane opposite Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest in a remake of Édouard Molinaro’s 1978 Franco-Italian film “La Cage aux Folles.” The film won the Screen Actors Guild prize for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, but it missed out on top Oscar nominations. 

“Blue Velvet” (1986)

Paul Thomas Anderson used a Reddit AMA to declare “Blue Velvet” his favorite David Lynch movie. The director says “Velvet” and Lynch’s Palme d’Or winner “Wild at Heart” are the crowning achievements of his career. “Blue Velvet” marked the first collaboration between Lynch and future muses Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern. MacLachlan stars as a college student who returns home and launches an investigation after discovering a severed ear in his yard. Isabella Rossellini and Dennis Hopper star in memorable supporting roles.

“Call Me By Your Name” (2017)

Paul Thomas Anderson called Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 gay romance “Call Me By Your Name” one of the standout films of the year during a Reddit AMA to promote “Phantom Thread.” The film features Timothée Chalamet in a star-making performance as Elio, a teenager spending the summer in Italy who falls in love with his father’s student helper (Armie Hammer). Chalamet became the youngest Oscar nominee for Best Actor in over eight decades thanks to his performance, while the film also picked up nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning for the latter. 

“City of Ghosts (2017)

In a Reddit AMA, Paul Thomas Anderson named Matthew Heineman’s documentary “City of Ghosts” one of the strongest non-fiction films in recent years. Heineman won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Award from the Director’s Guild of America for the film. “City of Ghosts” follows the Syrian media activist group “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently” as they are forced into exile once their homeland is taken over by ISIS. 

“Dogville” (2003)

Paul Thomas Anderson once interviewed Lars von Trier and thanked the Danish filmmaker for crafting some of the most challenging cinema he’s ever seen. Von Trier’s 2003 drama “Dogville” was not an instant favorite for Anderson, but the director said that the film continues to grow with every re-watch. Anderson compares “Dogville” to “Barry Lyndon” in how repeat viewings bring out the one-of-a-kind tone. “When I saw it, I thought it was very serious, and then I saw it the second time, and I said, ‘This is fucking hilarious!'” Anderson told von Trier about “Dogville.” “And I actually felt that way about Dogville, you know, ‘This is a fucking comedy, this is insane!”‘ But it was almost like, that sort of bizarre relationship to a movie, when you don’t completely understand it at first.”

The Stanley Kubrick Quartet

Ask Paul Thomas Anderson his favorite Stanley Kubrick movie and he’ll have a hard time picking among “Dr. Strangelove,” “Lolita,” “Full Metal Jacket,” and “The Shining.” The director cited all four movies when asked by a Reddit user to name Stanley Kubrick’s best movie. Anderson met Kubrick on the set of “Eyes Wide Shut.” Anderson came to visit Tom Cruise, the lead of “Eyes Wide Shut” and a crucial supporting actor in Anderson’s “Magnolia.”

“Kubrick had a really small crew,” Anderson told author Brian Raftery. “I asked him, ‘Do you always work with so few people?’ He gave me a look and said, ‘Why? How many people do you need?’ I felt like such a Hollywood asshole.”

“Dunkirk” (2017)

Christopher Nolan’s war thriller “Dunkirk” blew Paul Thomas Anderson’s mind when he first saw it. The two filmmakers are close friends and share a love for shooting on celluloid. As Anderson once explained, “I always get to see Christopher Nolan’s films in the optimal setting, hot off the presses. I just remember thinking that, as many times as you’ve done this, there’s no greater pleasure than sitting in a movie theater now and saying, ‘How the fuck did he do that?’ That was every single moment [with ‘Dunkirk’], really.”

“The Earrings of Madame de…” (1953)

Anderson has cited Max Ophüls as one of the most influential directors on his career and names the German director’s 1953 romance drama “The Earrings of Madame De” his best work. “He was the first person to do with the camera what he did,” Anderson told The Criterion Collection. “There’s nothing I’ve seen before these films that compares or comes close to them. The story sunk into my DNA of how to tell a story and what makes an interesting story. It got in there so strongly. These movies are the first time I was seeing anything like them. I see now all the things I’ve ripped off from Ophüls. It’s amazing how, if a film is so good, it gets under your skin.”

“Gaslight” (1944)

“Phantom Thread” was born out of Paul Thomas Anderson’s love of dark romance films such as “Rebecca,” “Suspicion,” and George Cukor’s “Gaslight.” Anderson cited those three titles when asked by Film Inquiry about his favorites in the genre. “I’m an aficionado of the adopted romance genre,” the director said. “Those are the ones that I always gravitate towards. And so I had an idea [for a movie] that started with a very strong-willed man who was ill, and how nice he became when he was ill, and his spouse thinking, ‘Mhm, I kinda like him when he’s like this.'”

“Girls Trip” (2017)

Paul Thomas Anderson put Tiffany Haddish at the top of his collaborator wish list after being blown away by her work in the blockbuster 2017 comedy movie “Girls Trip.” As Anderson famously reacted, “I dare anybody to try and do what Tiffany Haddish did in [‘Girls Trip’]. That’s like a fucking magic trip how good she is in that, and I dare anybody to try and go take after take — or do one take as good as she does. She is a fucking force. She’s such a great performer.”

“Get Out” (2017)

Paul Thomas Anderson saw Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” during the production of “Phantom Thread” and instantly had a personal connection to the horror movie. “I got to see [Peele’s] movie in the middle of shooting, in winter in London, when I really needed a lifeline and I needed something to inspire me,” Anderson said. “I was cold and I didn’t think we were doing well, and I took myself to the movies on Sunday night. I was an enormous fan of everything he’d done in television, but the film inspired me so deeply and hugely. It was also a connection back to my country, as peculiar as that connection might be. It actually ironically made me homesick.”

“Gunda” (2019)

The most recent edition to Paul Thomas Anderson’s list of favorite movies is “Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky’s black-and-white documentary about the lives of farm animals. The movie debuted at the Berlin Film Festival and was picked up by Neon for a release later this year. Anderson told IndieWire in a statement, “‘Gunda’ is pure cinema. This is a film to take a bath in — it’s stripped to its essential elements, without any interference. It’s what we should all aspire to as filmmakers and audiences — pictures and sound put together to tell a powerful and profound story without rush. It’s jaw dropping images and sound put together with the best ensemble cast and you have something more like a potion than a movie.”

“House of Games” (1987) 

David Mamet’s 1987 drama “House of Games” made such an impression on a young Paul Thomas Anderson that he used Mamet’s writing style as a reference point when it came time to write his own short films and features. “My mission then was to rip off David Mamet, because I foolishly believed Mamet’s dialogue was how people really talked,” Anderson told Creative Screenwriting. “It took me a while to realize that Mamet had developed a wonderfully stylized way of highlighting the way humans speak. People immediately think of dialogue when they hear Mamet’s name, but I think the strength of his writing is his storytelling. ‘House of Games,’ for instance, is one of the best scripts ever written, and it’s the story structure that makes it so brilliant.”

“I Am Cuba” (1964)

Just how much of an impact did Mikhail Kalatozov’s “I Am Cuba” have on Paul Thomas Anderson’s visual sense? Kalatozov’s imagery in his 1964 drama proved so vivid that Anderson lifted some of his shots and camera movements verbatim in such films as “Boogie Nights.” The most famous shot in “I Am Cuba” is a one take that begins on the rooftop of a hotel and travels down several floors. At one point during the shot the camera comes across the hotel pool and dives into it. That’s the shot Anderson lifted for “Boogie Nights,” and it would become one of the defining shots of Anderson’s early filmography.

“I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945)

“The Red Shoes” is considered Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s magnum opus, but Paul Thomas Anderson says the duo’s 1945 drama “I Know Where I’m Going!” is his pick for the best Powell-Pressburger film. “It’s a movie that was shot during the war up in the Hebrides,” Anderson told Film Inquiry. “It’s fantastic. It’s got a great female lead, and she’s kind of off, she’s off up north out of London and it’s just a great film. It’s a Powell–Pressburger movie. Where it falls in their scheme of things, I’m not really quite sure, but they shot a lot of it as the war was going on like in 1941 and 1942. And it’s not to be missed.”

“Jaws” (1975)

“Jaws was a big, big, big, big, big deal to me,” Anderson told Lars von Trier in an interview, saying it was one of two movies he rewatched endlessly as a child along with “The Wizard of Oz.” Steven Spielberg’s shark adventure drama has proven to be a landmark film for many of the best directors working today and has been cited as favorites by Guillermo del Toro and Wes Anderson.

“Jackie Brown” (1997)

Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino are close friends and Anderson believes “Jackie Brown” represents Tarantino at his best. For Anderson, the way Tarantino scripts the relationship between Pam Grier and Robert Forster’s characters elevates “Jackie Brown” to the top of the list of Tarantino’s best movies. “It’s a film so cool and so breezy about middle aged people that feel the clock ticking,” Anderson has said of “Jackie Brown.” “It reduces me to tears. I consider Quentin a peer, but ‘Jackie Brown’ is a watermark for how to shoot and film a scene with delicacy and compassion. A beautiful film, beautifully done.”

“Lady Bird” (2017)

Paul Thomas Anderson faced off against Greta Gerwig in the 2018 Oscar race for Best Director and had nothing but raves to share for Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” especially Saoirse Ronan’s lead performance. “You see this Irish actress be somebody from California, and more specifically from Sacramento, and you go, ‘How did she do that?” Anderson said at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “That’s the best feeling, when you see a magic trick in front of you and all the things you know about being a director go away.”

“The Master” (2012)

If you’re going to make Paul Thomas Anderson pick a favorite among the movies he’s directed, then his choice is going to be “The Master.” As Anderson explained, “I think that won’t change. The amount of emotion I put into it and they put into it — they being Phil [Seymour Hoffman], Joaquin [Phoenix] and Amy [Adams]. I’m not sure it’s entirely successful. But that’s fine with me. It feels right. It feels unique to me. I really hope it will be something people can revisit and enjoy in a way that equals my pride in it. And pride can be a dangerous thing, and I’m not being very quiet about my pride in saying all this. But I just feel really proud of it. And of course, there’s a particular sentimentality attached to it for a number of personal reasons. It’s all wrapped up.”

“Mission: Impossible” Franchise

Paul Thomas Anderson is obsessed with Tom Cruise, which is partly the reason Anderson cast Cruise to subvert the actor’s charismatic image in “Magnolia.”  Anderson once raved on the Bill Simmons podcast, “He’s funny too! Cruise is funny. When you see Tom Cruise on screen, name me anyone else that can do that right now. Whether in his action films or dramatic films, Cruise is the fucking king if you step back a little bit and it’s like, ‘Right, game’s on, it’s fucking Cruise.’ I love watching those ‘Mission Impossible’ films.”

“Moonlight” (2016) and “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018)

Paul Thomas Anderson is on the long list of admirers of “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” director Barry Jenkins. While interviewing Jenkins during a discussion for the Directors Guild of America, Anderson said that Jenkins’ most recent two features announced him as a successor to Anderson’s personal hero, Jonathan Demme. Anderson said, “I’m very jealous of your close-ups. There’s a long line of people who have really tried to do Jonathan Demme close-ups and I try all the time, but I have to say, you got it right better than anybody…I’m like how is he doing that? I’ve tried so hard. I suppose it has to do with the right faces, but it has to do a little more than that.”

“Nashville” (1975)

When asked during a Reddit AMA to name Robert Altman’s best movie, Paul Thomas Anderson pointed readers to the 1975 music ensemble dramedy “Nashville.” The film includes one of Altman’s most sprawling ensemble casts (Shelley Duvall, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Geraldine Chaplin, Keith Carradine, and more) in the story of various characters whose lives intersect in the five days leading up to a concert being organized in support of a third-party nominee for President. Altman is a huge fan of Altman’s career and even dedicated “There Will Be Blood” to the late filmmaker.  

“The Passionate Friends” (1949)

The working relationship between Paul Thomas Anderson and composer Johnny Greenwood often begins with the director introducing to the musician film scores from the past that are serving as tonal inspiration their upcoming collaboration. For “Phantom Thread,” Anderson suggested Greenwood check out one of his most beloved David Lean dramas, “The Passionate Friends.”

“Most people don’t know it because they know the movie before which was ‘Brief Encounter,’ which we all know,” Anderson told Film Inquiry. “But right after that, he made a terrific movie, little seen, called ‘The Passionate Friends,’ which I highly recommend, which is a fantastic score.”

“The Post” (2017)

Paul Thomas Anderson said in a Reddit AMA that any Steven Spielberg movie could be considered a “go-to comfort movie.” Shortly after the release of Spielberg’s newspaper drama “The Post,” Anderson told the Chicago Tribune why the film is a strong reminder that Spielberg ranks alongside cinema’s greatest directors. “Have you seen ‘The Post’? I’d say Steven Spielberg is as good with the camera as anybody in film history,” Anderson said. “I saw it the other day, and I couldn’t believe how good he is at dealing with a lot of people in that small a space. He’s got 10 people in a living room, and everybody’s moving around, and everything seems natural, and the camera’s dancing around them, and that thing is a miracle of staging and camerawork. I can’t wait to see it again, to really look under the hood and watch how he did it.”

“A Quiet Place” (2018)

Paul Thomas Anderson was such a fan of John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” that he personally got in touch with the director so that he could rave about his horror achievement. Months after the film’s release, Anderson even threw an FYC screening of “A Quiet Place” to help improve the movie’s Oscar chances. Krasinski told The New York Times that having Anderson become of a fan of his directing work was the most surreal part of the reaction to “A Quiet Place.”

“Paul emailed me and said, ‘You need to call me,’ and we talked on the phone and he was so specific and so honest about the movie,” Krasinski said. “He’s been so kind to me through my career, but we were talking like we were on an even playing field and that tripped my wires. What I love most about Paul is that he loves movies.”

“Rain Man” (1988)

Tom Cruise delivered one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s most iconic characters in “Magnolia,” but the actor had been one of Anderson’s obsessions long before they got to work with each other. Anderson told Bill Simmons that his love for Cruise exploded after he saw the actor opposite Dustin Hoffman in Barry Levinson’s 1988 comedy-drama “Rain Man.” Anderson said, “I always loved Tom Cruise like everyone else, but in ‘Rain Man’? I think I love Tom Cruise more than anyone loves Tom Cruise. ‘Born On The Fourth Of July’ and ‘Color Of Money’—those three are strong.”

“Rear Window” (1954)

Anderson told Film Inquiry he watched Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” before making “Phantom Thread” and it impressed him much more than he remembered upon first viewing. “Sometimes you see things through a different lens,” Anderson said. “I mean, you saw a movie 5 or 10 years ago, and then you come to it and it just speaks to you in a different way. And ‘Rear Window’ really spoke to me, particularly Grace Kelly’s performance and the sort of whole idea that Jimmy Stewart was this bachelor who would never get married and he’s a single guy and I’m a photographer and ‘I’m out there in the jungle and you don’t want any part of this’ and that kind of thing.

“Repo Man” (1984)

Paul Thomas Anderson adored Alex Cox’s 1984 sci-fi cult classic “Repo Man” and with “Inherent Vice” aimed to capture that film’s view on the disenfranchised characters roaming around the San Fernando Valley. Anderson said at NYFF, “I recognize this world. I saw tons of burned out hippie parents and kids like this…The film is focused, it’s funny, it’s outlandish. Quentin [Tarantino] I’m sure loved this movie. We’ve never talked about it, but there’s Quentin fingerprints all over the way these characters talk to each other.”

“The Shape of Water” (2017)

Part of the thrill for Paul Thomas Anderson of watching Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar winner “The Shape of Water” was watching Sally Hawkins become a full-fledged movie star in the leading role. As Anderson said while campaigning for his own Oscar contender “Phantom Thread” at the time, “The first thing I think of when I think of Guillermo’s film is Sally Hawkins and her performance. I’ve felt, for so long, that there she was, right in front of our faces. I wondered who was going to be the person to grab her and put her where she needed to be, and the most memorable thing about that film is seeing her, front and center.”

“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)

Paul Thomas Anderson was asked by The Criterion Collection in 2013 which three directors influenced his career most. His answer tells you everything you need to know about his love for one particular filmmaker: “Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme, and Jonathan Demme.” Demme’s visual style in “The Silence of the Lambs” was influential for Anderson, mainly Demme’s tight close-ups and choice to have the characters look directly into the camera during conversation scenes.

“You imagine [Demme] being a pinball in a pinball machine, the way that he’s ricocheted around here through the course of his life and the branches that have grown off of these things that he’s done,” Anderson said after Demme passed away. “He’s my hero. That was the person I looked at. If I could make my films, I want to make them look like that, sound like that, everything. Those moments when you feel that you’re in a jam, you have to say to yourself — and I do — ‘What would Jonathan do?’ And it is, at times, very helpful to help yourself get back on track.”

“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” (1993)

Rumor had it that Anderson’s casting search for the lead role in “Boogie Nights” came down to a heated battle between Mark Wahlberg and Leonardo DiCaprio, but that wasn’t the cast as DiCaprio passed on the project. Anderson was interested in meeting with DiCaprio for the role because he was a longtime fan, dating back to when child actor DiCaprio wowed audiences in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” Anderson said on the Bill Simmons podcast that he was “obsessed with ‘Gilbert Grape'” and DiCaprio’s performance in it. Anderson also loves DiCaprio’s performance in “This Boys Life,” which the director calls “a fucking amazing movie.”