Punch-Drunk Love

Punch-Drunk Love
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Thomas Anderson
Written byPaul Thomas Anderson
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyRobert Elswit
Edited byLeslie Jones
Music byJon Brion
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 19, 2002 (2002-05-19) (Cannes)
  • November 1, 2002 (2002-11-01) (United States)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25 million[1]
Box office$24.7 million[2]

Punch-Drunk Love is a 2002 American absurdist romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It follows an entrepreneur with social anxiety who falls in love with his sister's co-worker. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and New Line Cinema, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.

After working on his third film Magnolia, Anderson planned to make his next film around 90 minutes, with Sandler in mind as the lead due to Anderson's love for him and his films. It features the video art of Jeremy Blake in the form of visual interludes.

The film received positive reviews from critics, with Sandler's performance receiving widespread acclaim. However, the film was a box office bomb, failing to recoup its $25 million production budget at the box office. Retrospectively, Punch-Drunk Love is viewed as a favorite film of several prominent film directors and actors, and was seen as a launchpad for Sandler to pursue dramatic or unconventional film roles outside of his usual mainstream comedies and is widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of the 2000s and the 21st century.[3][4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference TheNumbers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Punch-Drunk Love (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
  3. ^ Murray, Noel; Phipps, Keith; Rabin, Nathan; Robinson, Tasha; Tobias, Scott. "The best films of the 00's". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on January 16, 2010. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
  4. ^ "The 100 best films of the 21st century (So far)". 6 February 2022.