A good movie

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while ago, I thought I might as well check it out again. I remember it very well, back then, when it was released, I was so glad that Paul Thomas Anderson didn’t take forever to come up with another directorial effort after 'The Master' (Indeed, Anderson is not what you could call a quick director). To be honest, the first time around, I was actually slightly disappointing by the damned thing but, that’s the issue with this director, I have such high expectations each time he comes up with something new. I mean, I already struggled to really care for 'The Master' because I thought it was a little bit murky but it was nothing compared to this movie. Indeed, I think I understood maybe 50% of it. Basically, there were so many characters, all more or less connected with each other but their connections were barely explained and none of them had some straight dialogs, always some rather obscure riddles. Well, I’m glad I gave it a 2nd chance. First of all, I was surprised by how little I actually remembered it after all. Then, I didn’t have such high expectations this time around and, above all, I knew more or less what the damned thing will be about. Eventually, I think it’s one of these movies that actually work better when you rewatch it. Indeed, the first time, I was constantly wondering what the hell was going on but, when I was trying to figure out what I just saw, a whole bunch of other things already took place in the meantime. When I rewatched it, I was actually anticipating this which made it easier to follow (I still didn’t follow all of it though) making it a more rewarding experience. Basically, it was some kind of mix of ‘Chinatown’ with ‘The Big Lebowski’ and I think I had never seen something like this before, a rather typical film noir set in the 70's with some completely stoned characters. Eventually, there is no denying that the directing was really solid and, once again, Joaquin Phoenix showed that he is one of the best actors at work nowadays. I should also mention that Katherine Waterston looked really stunning in this movie (the fact that I didn’t remember it show how little the impact was when I first saw this movie). Anyway, to conclude, even though it was definitely a minor effort from Paul Thomas Anderson, it was still a decent watch after all and I think it is worth a look, at least, if you are interested in this director.