The film industry was able to breathe a collective sign of relief now that Paul Thomas Anderson is an Oscar winner, as these are accolades that he has deserved for over three decades. Anderson is one of the most distinguished and unique filmmakers to emerge from the new wave of American independent filmmaking in the 1990s, but had yet to ever earn recognition from the Oscars; there was a fear that he could become one of the great filmmakers to never earn the top prize, such as Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Ridley Scott.
Anderson is the rare filmmaker who makes critically acclaimed masterpieces that are also a delight to watch because of how much entertainment value is baked into them. Impressively, he has made ten films thus far, none of which could be described as bad. Here is every Paul Thomas Anderson film, ranked.
10
‘Inherent Vice’ (2014)
Inherent Vice is Anderson’s most confusing and self-indulgent film to date, which doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not also very entertaining. In his first adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel, Anderson crafted a unique and very confusing neo-noir mystery that celebrated the San Fernando Valley in the same way that his prior films had.
Inherent Vice is best enjoyed by those who accept that the plot isn’t meant to be taken literally, and that its best to just coast on vibes; when looking beyond the literal stakes of the mystery, there’s a lot of emotional subtext to the performances, with Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro in particular being scene-stealers. It’s also a sign of just how funny Joaquin Phoenix can be when given a purely physical role, as he gives a strange and bonkers detective performance that has more in common with Bugs Bunny than it does with Humphrey Bogart.
9
‘Hard Eight’ (1996)
Hard Eight was a remarkable debut for Anderson that showed that all he really needed was a great cast and a smart script to make something exciting. Although it’s not the only ‘90s crime film to deal with gambling, Hard Eight succeeded at looking at the dark side of addiction thanks to the strange, troubling relationship between a career criminal (Philip Baker Hall) and his young acolyte (John C. Reilly).
Hard Eight is transporting because Anderson is able to capture the essence of a city and culture through a few primary locations, and is able to give tremendous opportunities for his supporting actors to stand out. It marked the first of many collaborations with the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose memorable performance as a particularly abrasive crabs player helped increase the tension of the film and turn it into a more ruthless and awe-inspiring thriller.
8
‘Punch-Drunk Love’ (2002)
Punch-Drunk Love was a sincere effort on Anderson’s part to make a romantic-comedy, albeit one where he could incorporate his trademark weirdness. Anderson was so convinced that Adam Sandler was actually a great actor whose talents were being underutilized by the industry that he gave him the role of his career as a soft-hearted man child who falls head over heels in love with the woman of his dreams, played by Emily Watson.
Anderson deserves a lot of credit for knowing that Sandler had a serious side; while he may have gone on to give other great dramatic performances in Uncut Gems, Funny People, and Jay Kelly, Sandler first proved his merits with Punch-Drunk Love. However, it was once again Hoffman who stole the film with his hilarious performance as a mattress store owner, as the scene ranks as one of the century’s funniest.
7
‘The Master’ (2012)
The Master is Anderson’s most complex and indecipherable film, which is partially why it is so entertaining. Even though Anderson succeeds at making his films feel urgent and realistic, The Master is one that can be interpreted in various ways; some see it as a twisted love story, others see it as a parallel to the birth of Scientology, and it can also be explained as a warning about the radicalization of “angry young men” who society has cast aside.
The Master features a trio of amazing performances from Phoenix, Hoffman, and Amy Adams, who frankly should have won her first Academy Award for one of the best roles of her career. It also featured a standout role from a young Jesse Plemons as the son of Hoffman’s character, signifying a passing of the torch between the best character actors of each generation.
6
‘Licorice Pizza’ (2021)
Licorice Pizza is by far the funniest movie of Anderson’s career because it captured the absurdism, irreverence, and contradictions involved with being in love for the first time. It’s fitting that after years of making great films with Hoffman, Anderson cast his son, Cooper Hoffman, in a role that summarized his own experiences as a teenager growing up in California during the 1970s.
Licorice Pizza is one of the most beautifully unstructured of Anderson’s films because it feels like a true “hangout” experience without ever being too indulgent for its own good. It’s also a film that is defined by its amazing cameos, as Bradley Cooper nearly takes over the film with a hilarious supporting performance that explores the allure of the 1970s film industry in a surprisingly profound (if completely satirical) way that only someone of Anderson’s experience would have been capable of.
5
‘Magnolia’ (1999)
Magnolia might actually be Anderson’s most rewatchable film because it’s nearly impossible to absorb all of its meaning on a first viewing. Anderson tied in multiple stories of regret, restraint, faith, and forgiveness into an epic in the San Fernando Valley that explored the frailty of deeply flawed characters; it’s a showcase for many of the actors that he would work with multiple times, including William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, Hall, Reilly, and Hoffman.
Magnolia is best remembered for the amazing performance by Tom Cruise in what might be his most daring dramatic role ever. Cruise may have made it a priority to work with nearly every great living filmmaker, but Anderson gave him the chance to play a deeply wounded, troubled man with a shattered paternal relationship, and the results were immaculate. That he lost the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor is one of the biggest award season crimes ever.
4
‘Phantom Thread’ (2017)
Phantom Thread is far more entertaining than anyone would have expected, as the idea of a period romantic drama about a dressmaker wouldn’t be traditionally seen as a “crowdpleaser.” That being said, Anderson created a reflective and potentially semi-autobiographical story about a deeply focused, frustrated artist with a desire for perfection, and there was no actor better for the role than Daniel Day-Lewis.
There’s a healthy argument to be made that Day-Lewis is the single greatest actor of all-time, and he’s certainly done some of his best work in the past few decades. However, Phantom Thread gave him an opportunity to play a vulnerable, yet deeply hilarious character who has to bargain for his own happiness, and he couldn’t have had a better screen partner than the amazing Vicky Kreips. The score by Jonny Greenwood is also an all-timer in the making.
3
‘One Battle After Another’ (2025)
One Battle After Another is one of the most deserving Best Pictures in awhile and guaranteed to stand the test of time as a film that captured what it was like to be an American in 2025. Although it’s by far the most action-packed and epic in scope of anything that Anderson has ever made, One Battle After Another is also an incredibly heartfelt story about a father and daughter, which was clearly made by its writer/director as a means of acknowledging his own children.
One Battle After Another features the type of quirky humor and great needle drops that Anderson is known for, and it also has some of his greatest actors ever. Leonardo DiCaprio had been long expected to eventually team up with Anderson, and One Battle After Another gave the Oscar-winning star a heartfelt role as a dedicated father.
2
‘Boogie Nights’ (1997)
Boogie Nights is the film that put Anderson on the map as the voice of a generation and showed that he could create something profound, affecting, and nuanced about any subject matter, even if it was pornography in the 1970s. Boogie Nights is not only about the ways in which creative communities come together and form unusual families, but also an expression of how art can take different shapes and mean specific things to different people.
Boogie Nights has an amazing ensemble cast, with Anderson’s casting of Mark Wahlberg being the perfect way to maximize the impact of a star with very specific talents. Despite the fact that he openly detested the film and disowned his involvement in it, Burt Reynolds gives such a great performance in Boogie Nights that it’s a shame that he did not continue to make more projects with Anderson.
1
‘There Will Be Blood’ (2007)
There Will Be Blood is one of the few films of the 21st century that could be named an instant classic, and could be held up in comparison to 2001: A Space Odyssey, Citizen Kane, and The Godfather without earning any blowback. While 2007 was an amazing year for cinema that saw some of the best filmmakers alive pushing their talents to the extreme, Anderson crafted an unforgettable character study about one of the most memorable anti-heroes in American history.
There Will Be Blood is a dark film that is highly entertaining for how it shows Daniel Plainview’s steady descent into madness as he is eaten alive by his ambition, greed, and hatred. It’s not only perhaps the best performance that Day-Lewis has ever given, but a feat of acting that it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the history of Hollywood being capable of pulling off.
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