Director Paul Thomas Anderson attends a special screening and Q&A of ‘One Battle After Another’. Photo Credit: Jay L. Clendenin/Shutterstock for Warner Bros. Copyright: Copyright ©2025 Jay L. Clendenin.
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most accomplished filmmakers of his generation.
He began his career with ‘Hard Eight‘ starring Gwyneth Paltrow, but it was ‘Boogie Nights’ that made him one of the most popular directors in Hollywood. Since then he has helmed such acclaimed films as ‘Magnolia‘, ‘Punch-Drunk Love‘, ‘There Will Be Blood‘, ‘The Master‘, ‘Inherent Vice‘, ‘Phantom Thread‘, and ‘Licorice Pizza‘.
The filmmakers latest film, ‘One Battle After Another,’ which stars Leonardo Di Caprio, opens in theaters on September 26th.
“Some search for battle, others are born into it…”
Release Date: Sep 26, 2025
Run Time: 2 hr 41 min
Budget: $130,000,000
In honor of ‘One Battle After Another’, Moviefone is counting down every film Paul Thomas Anderson has ever directed from worst to best, including his latest.
Let’s begin!
Related Article: Movie Review: ‘One Battle After Another’
Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Hard Eight’. Photo: Rysher Entertainment.
A stranger (Phillip Baker Hall) mentors a young Reno gambler (John C. Reilly) who weds a hooker (Gwyneth Paltrow) and befriends a vulgar casino regular.
“If you stay in the game long enough, you’ll see everything, win everything, and lose everything.”
Release Date: Feb 28, 1997
Run Time: 1 hr 42 min
Budget: $3,000,000
(L to R) Emily Watson and Adam Sandler in ‘Punch-Drunk Love’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
A socially awkward and volatile small business owner (Adam Sandler) meets the love of his life (Emily Watson) after being threatened by a gang of scammers.
“I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.”
Release Date: Oct 25, 2002
Run Time: 1 hr 36 min
Budget: $25,000,000
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Phantom Thread’. Photo: Focus Features.
In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker’s (Daniel Day Lewis) meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse (Vickey Kreps) intensifies.
“Whatever you do, do it carefully.”
Release Date: Jan 19, 2018
Run Time: 2 hr 10 min
Budget: $35,000,000
Philip Seymour Hoffman in ‘The Master’. Photo: The Weinstein Company.
Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix), a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), the charismatic leader of a new “religion” he forms after World War II.
Release Date: Sep 21, 2012
Run Time: 2 hr 17 min
Budget: $32,000,000
(L to R) Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in ‘Licorice Pizza’. Photo: United Artists Releasing.
The story of Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana Kane (Alana Haim) growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
Release Date: Dec 25, 2021
Run Time: 2 hr 13 min
Budget: $40,000,000
Tom Cruise in ‘Magnolia’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father (Jason Robards), a young wife (Julianne Moore), a male caretaker (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a famous lost son (Tom Cruise), a police officer (John C. Reilly) in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius (William H. Macy), a game show host (Phillip Baker Hall) and an estranged daughter (Melora Walters) will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
“Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.”
Release Date: Jan 7, 2000
Run Time: 3 hr 9 min
Budget: $37,000,000
Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Inherent Vice.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterson).
“Love usually leads to trouble.”
Release Date: Jan 9, 2015
Run Time: 2 hr 29 min
Budget: $20,000,000
The cast of ‘Boogie Nights’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams’ rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, “Dirk Diggler”. Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams’ dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.
“The Life of a Dreamer, The Days of a Business and The Nights In Between.”
Release Date: Oct 31, 1997
Run Time: 2 hr 36 min
Budget: $15,000,000
Leonardo Di Caprio as Bob Ferguson in ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. (Leonardo Di Caprio)
“Some search for battle, others are born into it…”
Release Date: Sep 26, 2025
Run Time: 2 hr 41 min
Budget: $130,000,000
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood’. Photo: Paramount Vantage.
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) suspects Plainview’s motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
“There will be greed. There will be vengeance.”
Release Date: Jan 25, 2008
Run Time: 2 hr 38 min
Budget: $25,000,000
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