“Punch-Drunk Love” by Jon Brion

After two sprawling epics, director Paul Thomas Anderson took it down a notch and came along with a small and low-key romantic comedy called Punch-Drunk Love. The film centers around Barry Egan, a thirty-something basket-case who leads a dull life. During the day he tries to sell toilet plungers, while at night he desperately seeks deep conversations with sex hotline workers. He is emotionally unstable and trapped in his little world of borderline, crying fits, and a deep-seated longing for a significant other. Until one day, an unexpected encounter turns his life upside down… I don’t know if there’s anything…

“Magnolia” by Jon Brion, Aimee Mann

There are films that you consider to be flawless until you watch them again years later and realize that they aren’t even as good as you thought they were. Instead they’re more like testimonials of their time, grounded in the very moment. Times are constantly changing and many of the films from back then evoke quite different emotions today. But there are also the rare exceptions that haven’t lost any of their magic. Films that years and decades later still manage to captivate just like they did when they were originally released. Magnolia is such a case for me. I…