With such acclaimed masterpieces as There Will Be Blood, The Master, and Punch-Drunk Love under his belt, Paul Thomas Anderson has made a name for himself as one of the greatest filmmakers working today. He’s told both intimate human stories and large-scale epics, with plenty of memorable characters along the way.
Anderson’s films are filled with characters that fans love, like a porn star abused by the industry or a loner with emotional issues who just wants to find his soulmate; then there are characters that they hate, like an oddly charismatic religious cult leader and a morally bankrupt oil baron.
Lovable: Dirk Diggler
Mark Wahlberg successfully shed his image as a hip-hop artist and proved he could cut it as a dramatic actor with his lead performance as porn star Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights.
Just like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, one of the biggest influences on Anderson’s film, Dirk enters a seemingly glamorous world and finds himself in over his head when he discovers that world’s hidden dark side.
Love To Hate: Lancaster Dodd
Philip Seymour Hoffman gave one of the finest performances of his career as Lancaster Dodd, the charming leader of “The Cause” religious cult, in The Master.
The Cause was pretty transparently based on the Church of Scientology, and Dodd uses a lot of the same tricks as L. Ron Hubbard to lure in new followers.
Lovable: Lena Leonard
In the opening scene of Punch-Drunk Love, Lena Leonard approaches Barry Egan and asks if he’ll give her car keys to the mechanic next door when he opens up shop. Later, it turns out that this situation was manufactured because Lena saw a picture of Barry on his sister’s desk and wanted to meet him.
Emily Watson gives a truly lovable performance as Lena, and also shares such terrific chemistry with Adam Sandler that Lena’s love for Barry feels real.
Love To Hate: Reynolds Woodcock
Fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock may not be as overtly evil as the other character Daniel Day-Lewis played for Paul Thomas Anderson, oil tycoon Daniel Plainview, but he’s still pretty easy to hate.
He takes his work very seriously and makes a huge deal out of every little disruption, like if his girlfriend stops by his office to offer him a cup of tea. This mean-spiritedness is eventually avenged by a well-timed poisoning and it becomes clear that Reynolds and Alma are both terrible people who deserve each other.
Lovable: H.W. Plainview
Every tragic antihero needs a lovable son (or son-like foil) to suffer some of the devastating consequences of their downfall. Walter White had his former student Jesse Pinkman to carry this burden, while There Will Be Blood’s Daniel Plainview has his adopted son H.W.
Thanks to his adoptive dad’s irrepressible greed, H.W. is deafened in an explosion and then abandoned on a train by Daniel before being taken back before being disowned again. And the whole reason he was orphaned in the first place was because his dad died on one of Daniel’s drilling sites. H.W. can’t catch a break.
Love To Hate: Dean Trumbell
Barry Egan has no idea what he’s getting into when he calls a phone sex line in Punch-Drunk Love. The woman keeps calling him back, attempting to extort him, so he finds out where she’s calling from: a mattress store.
After a heated argument with the mattress store owner Dean Trumbell on the phone, Barry drives all the way to confront him and delivers a speech about the power of love.
Lovable: Freddie Quell
Joaquin Phoenix stars in The Master as Freddie Quell, an aimless loner who is targeted by a manipulative cult and seduced into giving himself over to the Cause by its strangely charismatic leader.
Freddie’s backstory makes him endearing. His serious emotional problems are shown to be the result of a history of incestuous sexual abuse.
Love To Hate: Jack Horner
Burt Reynolds gave one of his most memorable late-career performances in Boogie Nights. He played porn producer Jack Horner, who takes young Dirk Diggler under his wing and later turns on him.
Reynolds apparently disliked both Anderson and Boogie Nights while he was working on the movie, but this spitefulness arguably contributed to Jack’s tense attitude.
Lovable: Barry Egan
Adam Sandler proved he could give powerful dramatic performance with his portrayal of Barry Egan in Paul Thomas Anderson’s romantic drama Punch-Drunk Love. Barry is prone to violent outbursts and suffers from terrible loneliness, which makes him startlingly human.
Barry sums up his problems with one beautifully written quote: “I don’t know if there’s anything wrong because I don’t know how other people are.” His life turns around when he meets Lena and falls in love.
Love To Hate: Daniel Plainview
Daniel Day-Lewis more than earned his Oscar for his lead performance in There Will Be Blood. Anderson’s script is a quintessentially American saga about the corrupting power of wealth and Day-Lewis used it as a jumping-off point to explore the darkest corners of the human soul.
The thick, black, gooey oil is the perfect symbolism to convey the downfall of Daniel Plainview’s soul as his unstoppable greed takes over all his decisions.