18 Paul Thomas Anderson Movies & TV Shows, Ranked Best to Worst

There Will Be Blood is a period drama film which tells the story of Daniel Plainview, a ruthless oil prospector and his relentless struggle to become the most powerful oil tycoon. For this, he even starts to manipulate his adopted son.

The film narrates the significance of chance and coincidence in the different yet intertwined stories of nine characters on a rainy day in Los Angeles: a dying game-show host, his estranged drug-addicted daughter, dying former producer, his trophy wife and estranged misogynist son, an ex-quiz-champion and a boy genius, a caring nurse and a police officer in love.

A period drama film that focuses on the life of a young nightclub employee who enters the pornographic film industry and becomes a popular star before eventually suffering a downfall, Boogie Nights is an expansion of Paul Thomas Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story. 

Phantom Thread is a romantic drama film which takes us to London in the 1950s. It tells the story of a dressmaker named Reynolds, whose life is disrupted by a young strong-willed woman.  He starts developing a liking for her, and she soon becomes his muse and lover.

Punch-Drunk Love is a dark comedy film that centres on a single man, Barry Egan, with emotionally abusive sisters who, in an effort to cure his loneliness, calls up a phone-sex line, but gets embroiled in an extortion racket instead. Egan's situation gets further complicated when he falls in love with Lena Leonard who he must protect from the extortionists.

Licorice Pizza is a romantic comedy drama film which takes us to San Fernando Valley, in 1973. The film revolves around a 15 year old actor Gary Valentine, who finds himself attracted to a much older woman named Alana, who is working as the assistant of a photographer. Although she initially tries to rebuff his advances, they soon develop a unique friendship which may blossom into romance.  

Sydney, a veteran gambler, teaches a young broke youngster John how to gamble and the latter eventually becomes his protégé. John does quite well, till he starts falling for a waitress named Clementine. 

Having witnessed the horrors of WWII, Freddie Quell struggles to return to normal life and drifts from one job to another due to his alcoholism and violent nature. He is easily influenced by Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of the philosophical movement, The Cause, but his rise within the cult makes the other members worried.

Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello is a good-hearted but inept stoner who works as a private investigator. His former lover, Shasta suddenly shows up and asks him to prevent her rich lover, Wolfmann, from being committed to insane asylum by Wolfmann’s wife. Doc soon finds himself tangled in the psychedelic world of drugs and corrupt LAPD. 

The film narrates the significance of chance and coincidence in the different yet intertwined stories of nine characters on a rainy day in Los Angeles: a dying game-show host, his estranged drug-addicted daughter, dying former producer, his trophy wife and estranged misogynist son, an ex-quiz-champion and a boy genius, a caring nurse and a police officer in love.

Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s 1954 short story, the movie is set in 2054 Washington where specialised police arrests murderers before they actually kill someone. Helping the police are three psychics or precogs who can predict these murders. John Anderton works for this special police force but when one day, he is identified as a future killer, he is forced to escape to prove his innocence.