Diary entries forHard Eight
Hard Eight
A fine first addition to PTA's movie catalog, but knowing what he is capable of, especially Boogie Nights, which came out the next year, I couldn't help but feel like this is just a "warm up" movie. Very small in scale, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The performances are excellent as well, particularly Philip Baker Hall, who is downright masterful in his performance. I did learn more about craps in this movie than I ever had before.
Hard Eight
Enjoyed parts of this, especially Philip Baker Halls character and performance, but was left disappointed at other points. A major part of the story is a girl gets married to a guy, and on their wedding day she sleeps with a stranger for money. Yet, despite this, her new husband decides to stay with her and that it was okay for her to do that? Very strange and really took a lot away from what was otherwise a good film.
Hard Eight
File under cinema you can smell. After a pandemic's worth of time, too, all I want is to be able to sit down and linger in a diner with some coffee.
Hard Eight
Imagine having the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Philip Baker Hall in your debut feature film? I’m diggin’ the vibes here, PTA really just had a knack for directing and camerawork from the very beginning. Nighttime cinematography with neon lights is one of my favorite things in the world, so bonus points for those scenes.
Hard Eight
Most pta films tend to take its time for me to be fully hooked and usually it’s within 20 min This was about halfway through with the something happening in the plot A good debut nonetheless and the performances were all great
Hard Eight
İzlerken hiç sıkmıyor tertemiz bi film
Hard Eight
74/100 Check out PTA filmography ranked - boxd.it/pB97U (https://boxd.it/pB97U) And with this, I have completed the PTA filmography. A very good debut to his career and you can clearly see his conversationalist style of filmmaking from here. However, this film is quite simple and very linear. Not for a moment do you feel that classic PTA tension. It feels like it’s being laid on for you.
Hard Eight
❝You know, what are--what are ya gonna do? You know, things happen. This happens. That happens. Shit just happens, you know? You just deal with it.❞ · · ──────⊹⊱ ✦ ⊰⊹────── · · ranking pta's filmography ⋆˚꩜｡ (https://boxd.it/PzB6g) For a debut film, Hard Eight is pretty good. The opening scene hooked me and I was invested for a while, but unfortunately the plot lost steam a little, and despite the relatively short run-time it felt like the film was dragging in the second act. Thankfully it picked up again afterwards, and I liked the ending. Philip Baker Hall was excellent, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's brief cameo was so good. John C. Reilly did a good job as well, but alongside Gwyneth Paltrow he wasn't the best performance of the film. Though I haven't watched all of Paul Thomas Anderson's work, there's definitely a difference between his early and later films; Hard Eight to me seems a little less restrained and confident than Punch-Drunk Love and Phantom Thread, and it's a bit derivative, whereas the latter two feel more original. I won't be able to really tell until I watch more of his films, though.
Hard Eight
Cult of Personality 2023 (https://boxd.it/jw0oo) #26 of 52 | John C. Reilly (https://letterboxd.com/actor/c-3/) Pretty good performances from everyone involved. The story didn't really do much for me. Overall, it wasn't particularly bad but it certainly wasn't amazing either; just kind of 'eh'. Nothing to write home about.
Hard Eight
A confident, and different, film from PTA. Great performances. Captivating film.
