Start with Boogie Nights or Licorice Pizza, both of which are warm, funny and structurally generous. Then There Will Be Blood, which is the towering one, and Magnolia if you want the maximalist version. The Master is where to go once you accept that he will not resolve a relationship for you.
Anderson has had two careers. The early films are sprawling ensembles with dozens of characters, restless cameras and enormous emotional volume. From There Will Be Blood onward they narrow to two or three people and get considerably colder, more controlled, and much harder to resolve.
Both halves share an interest in surrogate families and in men whose appetite cannot be satisfied by anything available. He also works with the same collaborators for decades, which is why the films sound coherent even as they change shape: Jonny Greenwood scores, Robert Elswit and later Anderson himself shoots, and the same actors recur.
Where to start
Boogie Nights. It is his most immediately entertaining film, the ensemble structure carries you, and the last forty minutes demonstrate what he can do when the warmth turns. Licorice Pizza is the gentler alternative. There Will Be Blood is the masterpiece and a hard first film to sit with.
Top picks
Filmography
- Hard Eight (1996)
- Boogie Nights (1997)
- Magnolia (1999)
- Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
- There Will Be Blood (2007)
- The Master (2012)
- Inherent Vice (2014)
- Phantom Thread (2017)
- Licorice Pizza (2021)
- One Battle After Another (2025)
Sources and further reading
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FAQs about Paul Thomas Anderson
Which is his best film?
There Will Be Blood by most critical consensus, and it appears on a large share of best-of-century lists. His admirers split between that and The Master, with Boogie Nights and Magnolia carrying the affection of people who prefer the early maximalism. All four are defensible answers.
Why do people find The Master frustrating?
Because it builds a relationship for two hours and refuses to resolve it in any conventional sense. There is no confrontation that settles what the two men are to each other, and the film ends on ambiguity by design. If that reads as unfinished rather than deliberate, it will not convert you.
Is Inherent Vice worth the confusion?
If you accept that following the plot is not the assignment. It is a Pynchon adaptation about a stoned detective and the incoherence is faithful to the source rather than a failure. Watch it for the atmosphere and Joaquin Phoenix, and do not expect to be able to summarise it afterwards.