There’s a common feeling when you start watching a movie on Netflix. As the movie begins, you’re still adjusting the position where you’re sitting, the volume, the brightness. It’s usually a little harder than a movie theater to dive right into a movie. In my own case, when I first watched Punch-Drunk Love on Netflix, I was still just getting into the movie when less than 5 minutes in, a random, chaotic event immediately sucks in your attention. The moment might feel like a gimmick, but from that point forward, you’re going to be engulfed in the movie.
Barry Egan (Adam Sandler, but hold your groans for a moment) is caught up between his deadbeat job and overwhelming pressure from his seven daunting older sisters. He has no connection to anybody and is lonely and confused beyond rational measure, and at times he is prone to violent outbreaks. He tries calling a phone sex line just to feel some sort of human connection, but to no avail. Suddenly, Lena (Emily Watson) enters his life, and for the first time he begins experiencing love and human connection but has no idea how to handle it.
Rather than getting too caught up in reality, the film flows with a poetic, fantastical grace. Elements are hyperbolic, but doesn’t everything feel that way when you first fall in love?
Prior to making this movie, director Paul Thomas Anderson made two sweeping, 3-hour-long ensemble pieces, Magnolia and Boogie Nights, both hailed as master works. Having maxed out his energy on that type of movie, he challenged himself to create the exact opposite: a 90-minute movie with essentially 2 characters. Rather than getting too caught up in reality, the film flows with a poetic, fantastical grace. Elements are hyperbolic, but doesn’t everything feel that way when you first fall in love? This is a classic example of the rare film that is style over substance, yet succeeds in gripping your emotions. Rather than pretending that the audience doesn’t already have an opinion on Adam Sandler (positive or negative), Anderson recognizes the actor he is working with and utilizes it, playing up Sandler’s zany caricature to express the frustration inside of him. There is no better sign of a master director than one who can take any actor and mold an iconic performance from them. This is just one example of how much the film defies expectations, and throughout the movie, we take twists and turns both in story and in style, but we are rooted in a passionate love story to stronger heights than most romantic films reach taking a conventional approach.
I have returned to this film multiple times as I’ve grown up myself. It’s short enough that it doesn’t require the same commitment many great movies demand to watch, one of the reasons it’s perfect for a Streamable Sunday. Instead, its simplicity matched with its unconventionality are so captivating and intriguing, and like a Rorschach picture means something different to anyone. Personally, I am hard pressed to find a romantic film that had a more moving impact on me. This is one of the first films that I ever streamed on Netflix. Today, it remains one of the absolute best.
