An article by Glenn Kenny (The Village Voice) has pinpointed the essence of Paul Thomas Anderson’s keen ear for soundtracks: “the knack of being able to choose the most unlikely, but absolutely correct, song to change the stress of a scene“.
But one could say this sentiment rings true for all of Anderson’s choices: the seemingly arbitrary firecracker kid in Boogie Nights, Magnolia‘s frog storm, the nude “A-Roving” scene from The Master… these things have no good reason to fit nicely into the narrative, yet they do. The flavor of a P.T.A. movie is no doubt bizarre (the product of his equally-kooky influences, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Downey Sr. and others), but it’s all the more digestible with the director’s sheer elegance in delivering something we’ve never seen before. And his penchant for music is no exception.
Ergo, here are the top 10 greatest music moments in Paul Thomas Anderson films:
10.) Harmonium Chaos – Punch-Drunk Love
At the midpoint of Anderson’s oddball rom-com, there is a moment where the film’s Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is tangled between his belly-up business, a plethora of patronizing sisters, and most mysteriously, a harmonium taking up space in his office. Job Brion’s clanky score (titled “Hands and Feet”) complements the stressful scene perfectly. It’s an acoustic collage of brooms sweeping across the floor, tiny bells ringing, metal screeching, and the sound of a bathtub’s edges being rubbed. Barry’s paranoia is placed into audible form, making for an queasy and chaotic sequence.
9.) Ouija Board Nostalgia – Inherent Vice
Although it lost many with its stoner centric logic and one after another of befuddling events, there is a beautiful moment of clarity in Inherent Vice when Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) recalls a ouija board he once consulted during a dry spell. Neil Young makes a too-sparse filmic appearance with his song, “Journey Through the Past”, which is precisely what Sportello is doing: reaching into his cloudy bag of memories for some semblance of meaning. The line, “Now I’m going back to Canada” hark to Young’s roots, which began in Canada and have without question earned him the right to be chiseled onto the hippie Mt. Rushmore. This moment is brief, and sandwiched between the rest of the perplexing narrative, but it’s an invigorating detour into Doc’s love affair with Shasta, the catalyst for the entire film.
8.) The Loneliest Number – Magnolia
The exodus, so to speak, of Magnolia is a montage of our nine players at their loneliest point, poised to be dragged even lower: Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) records a voice message asking for a companion, the deathly ill Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is slowly losing his consciousness, and Quiz Kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) crashes his car with the haze of his waning success hanging over him. “One is the loneliest number” indeed. Aimee Mann’s cover of Three Dog Night’s hit sports psychedelic guitars and Beatles-esque backing vocals, laying a vivid coat of fantasy over the film – a fantasy where raining frogs, miraculous coincidences and one’s own pipe dreams may or may not come true.
7.) Seymour Hoffman’s Serenade – The Master
Anderson has stated that he would “trade all [his] screenplays for a writing credit” to Frank Loesser’s “(I’d Like to Get You on a) Slow Boat to China”. And when you watch Lancaster Dodd’s wounded and heartfelt rendition, you can see why. Whichever way you slice it, The Master is in many ways a romantic story between Freddie Quell and Dodd – not of a physical or passionate breed, but instead rooted in the human yearn to classify one’s self through someone else. Dodd’s lullaby is essentially a “break-up” song for the two. And as most sour break-ups go, they may make you stronger, but you are still fated to become (as Dodd puts it) “sworn enemies”. The next scene follows-up with Helen Forrest’s “Change Partners”, a song about the emptiness one feels when you change partners on a dance floor: precisely how we feel when we part ways with our proverbial “masters”.
6.) Pool Party Medley – Boogie Nights
With the closing of Eddie Adams’ door and the opening of Jack Horner’s, the Three Dog Night cut, “Mama Told Me Not to Come” perfectly embodies Eddie’s casting-off the chains of his spiteful mother. The tune is fun, summery, and damn catchy. But hidden underneath are trepidatious lyrics of someone “passed out on the floor” and how “that cigarette you’re smoking nearly scared me half to death“. Anderson is cleverly camouflaging the writing on the wall for the disasters ahead. Elvin Bishop’s “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” also shows up, scoring Little Bill’s wife bumping uglies whilst encircled in a ring of onlookers. It’s profoundly depressing, but fitting: Bill’s wife, a retired porn star, has now settled down, but perhaps this “love” is not what either of them signed up for. A third great track at the party is Hot Chocolate’s song, “You Sexy Thing”, a hammy theme for Scottie’s (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) attraction to Eddie. Though perhaps it’s a tad on-the-nose, you still can’t help but grin when Scotty removes his shades in sheer awe of the future Dirk Diggler.
5.) Up in Flames – There Will Be Blood
There may have been nobody better than Jonny Greenwood to take the helm once Paul Thomas Anderson turned to original scores. The scene above marks a major drawback to Daniel Plainview’s burgeoning empire: a total collapse of his venerated oil rig. Greenwood’s music begins with a steady percussion of drums, tambourines and rattling wood blocks. Not only does it sound like a frantic heartbeat as Daniel rushes his deafened son to safety, it’s also phonetically similar to the crackling of weak timber, as in, say, a flimsy oil rig. As the oil geyser catches fire, the beat lathers into something fiercer, adding scurrying violins into the mix, and a few sinister plucks of their strings as the rig goes down in flames. It’s utter desperation and madness.
4.) Long Take of Little Bill – Boogie Nights
This scene may seem to be about the foils: the end of the 70’s vs. the beginning of the 80’s, happiness of New Year’s Eve vs. Little Bill’s despair. But if there is anything welded completely together it’s the tension of Charles Wright’s “Do Your Thing” and Little Bill’s boiling hatred. In a three-minute long tracking shot (with no cuts), we follow Bill through Jack Horner’s house into a bedroom where his wife is cheating on him, back outside, into his car and back into the house before returning to the bedroom to shoot his wife and lover. The lack of edits or cuts weds with the song’s anchored rhythm/lack of a chorus or bridge. “Do Your Thing” sounds upbeat enough, but as a nigh-instrumental jam session, there is ultimately no lyrical message other than to “do your thing“, even if that thing is to reap terrible retribution.
3.) Hawaiian Rendezvous – Punch-Drunk Love
The song, “He Needs Me”, from Robert Altman’s 1980 film, Popeye, is sung by the meek, endearing Shelly Duvall (Olive Oyl). On its own, the track’s preciousness just may be too much for it’s own good. But arranged into Barry Egan’s trip to Hawaii to find the woman he loves, its whimsy is put to good use. The repetition of the phrase, “he needs me” (24 times) is all the justification we need to make sense of Barry’s erratic behavior and misplaced decisions (the 99 Cent Store pudding, the decision to keep the harmonium, the defacing of a public restroom). It’s just love. It’s reckless, it’s unpredictable, and all it takes is for someone to “need” somebody else. The repetition also has an anxious temperament to it. When Barry is huddled beside a pay phone trying to reach Lena, the phrase heightens the moment again and again by reminding us what is at stake.
2.) Aimee Mann Sing-Along – Magnolia
Perhaps the boldest use of music in Anderson’s repertoire, Magnolia sees its characters reach their respective breaking points, only to stop and sing in unison. Aimee Mann’s stanzas in “Wise Up” are divided among the characters, who sing along to the half-diegetic song. Claudia (Melora Walters) is given the lion’s share of lyrics, which directly reflect her situation: “You’ve got what you want. And you can’t hardly stand it“. Claudia fears real human contact after being abused as a child, and even though she has found someone who care for her it’s frightening. Another telling verse is the one sung by Linda Partridge (Julianne Moore): “Prepare a list for what you need before you sign away the deed“, which sums up her dilemma of securing her dying husband’s assets before committing suicide. Other characters’ verses are less-relevant, and only repeat the phrase, “It’s not going to stop ’til you wise up“, a theme of resilience to the pain they all share.
1.) Botched Drug Deal Suite – Boogie Nights
This should come as no surprise to anyone frequenting the countless P.T.A. blogs and articles over the years. It’s a mythic moment that has been analyzed since it’s 1997 for its Tarantino-ish dialogue, it’s lathering sense of panic, the unexplained presence of firecrackers, Mark Wahlberg’s 50-second catatonic stare, and Alfred Molina’s doped-up performance as the scene’s tractor beam of attention, Rahad Jackson. The scene flaunts giant 80’s hits, “Sister Christian” and “Jessie’s Girl”, all the while Rahad Jackson indulges his three swindlers (Dirk, Reed and Todd) on his cassette-mixing opinions. Much has been written about this scene already, so I’ll just let the music speak for itself. It’s possibly the paramount of Anderson’s lengthy and inspired body of work.
Analogies & Ant Farms 