“Tell someone you love them today, because life is short. But shout it at them in German, because life is also terrifying.”
– anonymous meme
With a career filled with critical highs and lows, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has wowed audiences with the fictious rise-and-fall one of Dirk Diggler (Boogie Nights), inspired a meme for whom the meaning within the film is often forgotten outside of context (There Will Be Blood), and created a great deal of controversy regarding age-gaps (Licorice Pizza). For this reviewer, its Anderson’s 2002 surreal dramedy Punch-Drunk Love, propelled by a career-changing performance from Adam Sandler (Happy Gilmore; Uncut Gems), that is the best of the catalogue, even if it’s a film that’s difficult to watch. After an initial Criterion Collection home release edition in 2016, the film is being re-released by the boutique with a brand-new 4K UHD digital restoration with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound, supervised and approved by Anderson. This does include all the previously-available Criterion bonus features, so the only thing that really drives this edition is the new video and audio.
Adam Sandler as Barry Egan in PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
No one is going to say that Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) is a thrill-seeker. He’s as prone to jumping at the flash of light when someone abruptly opens his warehouse door as he is running when he sees someone outside of work coming toward him. Though he has some measure of confidence in himself that he runs his own business and can get in front of clients with help from his associate Lance (Luis Guzmán), when his overbearing sisters — all seven of them — insert themselves into his life, said confidence drains right out of him. But everything changes for Barry when two coinciding though unconnected events occur (meeting the lovely Lena (Emily Watson) and running afoul of a grifting mattress man (Philip Seymour Hoffman)), Barry will be forced to confront his himself and his life in order to move forward.
Adam Sandler as Barry Egan in PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
To be very clear, what follows is going to be a review of the 4K UHD edition of Punch-Drunk Love and nothing else. Based on available information, being 4K is the only thing that’s new and/or different from the 2016 Criterion edition. That means that all the bonus features, the essay, and even the packaging are the same, save for the need of a two-disc holder for the 4K UHD edition where the Blu-ray would have a one-disc. Additionally, all of the bonus features are included on the Blu-ray disc version of the film, confirming that there are no new supplemental materials on the 4K UHD disc.
L-R: Emily Watson as Lena and Adam Sandler as Barry Egan in PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
There are two elements to the restoration: the things we see/hear and what’s under the hood. Regarding the former, the 4K UHD picture and sound undoubtedly impresses. The increased detail enables you to see small elements on Barry’s blue suit and the grain of the wood in the harmonium, while the HDR enhances the range of color so that Barry almost disappears into the shadows when he hides in his warehouse and one might become overwhelmed by the emotional significance of Barry’s blue suit and Lena’s vibrant red coming together as they embrace. The HDR enhances the visual experience of Punch-Drunk as it ties into conveying Barry’s emotional state, such as the blinding light that emanates from his warehouse door when its flung open (to him) unexpectedly and it sends him scurrying. Likewise, while I can’t speak to the Atmos track as EoM is not equipped for that, the compatible 5.1 audio is immersive in the sense that the audience doesn’t just hear what Barry hears, but at times hears what Barry *thinks* he hears, like the roaring of the semi rushing past him right as Barry lifts the harmonium out of the street. The sound is grating, overbearing, and intense, conveying Barry’s POV on his view of a harsh world. In terms of the latter, the bitrate for the 4K UHD disc supports the improvements we see in the visual display as it hovers at 80 Mbps, roughly double the rate of a standard HD disc (40 Mbps). Occasionally, the bitrate dips into the upper 70s and similarly into the low 80s, but, primarily, the bitrate holds within 80 Mbps. This is far from the optimum visual display one could get (4K UHDs max at 128), but it doesn’t disappoint, either.
L-R: Luis Guzmán as Lance (kneeling) and Adam Sandler as Barry Egan in PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
Punch-Drunk Love straddles the line of credulity but manages to stick its landing thanks to its surrealist bend. Barry is, by no means, a healthy individual, but it’s entirely because of the environment he grew up in and can’t entirely escape. His sisters belittle and deride him at near every opportunity, infantilizing him by each calling him about coming to a birthday party yet existing in a state of indifference/ridicule that he might be working. They don’t take him or his feelings seriously, which is what results in the audience first witnessing Barry’s undercurrent rage. When we meet him, he seems skittish, uncomfortable in his own skin, and to see danger everywhere, made manifest by the unexpected violent car accident where the warehouse driveway meets the road and then the monstrous noise of the truck as it drove by. So, to see his violence is, at first, surprising, or, at the very least, it would be if not for the conversation we overhear the sisters having regarding their terrible childhood nickname for their brother and his violent outburst in his adolescence as a result of hearing it. Barry has no safe place, no safe people, that he can go to, not even his own family. One may struggle to understand Lena’s desire to meet and develop a relationship with Barry, given that she starts her pursuit having seen a photo and heard of him from co-worker Elizabeth Egan (Mary Lynn Rajskub), but we can understand why Barry is so helplessly taken with her. She represents that classic cinematic/storybook love in which the clouds part, the sky shines, and all is made better as a result of Lena entering his life. If it wasn’t clear that the film, for all of its grittiness within the family dynamic and the mattress man subplot, is a silly romance, one need only examine the use of “He Needs Me” as sung by actor Shelly Duvall from the film Popeye (1980) or note the perfect timing of the light within a telephone booth’s interior. These are theatrical inclusions that signify an elevated state of being, one which shifts the Egan sisters from general nags and horrible people into representations of a negative family unit, and Hoffman’s mattress man into a phantom threat due to Barry’s willingness to finally fight for something. Are either of his problems truly dealt with in a manner that makes sense for a grounded film? Absolutely not. But viewed through a rom-com lens, there’s little to quibble over.
Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dean Trumbell in PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. Photo courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
November 2002 is what’s listed as the wide release date for Punch-Drunk Love, which means that I saw this picture in my senior year of undergrad. This was a period of rebirth for myself, having discovered a love wasn’t what I thought and taking advantage of my renewed independence by exploring films that made me curious and spending time with other friends. This screening was particularly memorable for several reasons not worth getting into here, but I’ll never forget how Punch-Drunk Love made me feel: seen. I know this sort of familial relationship, I know this sort of feeling of trepidation because every move or word is met with critical response, and I know that feeling that being seen (or so I thought back then) can create within someone. Of course, I’ve long since discovered what actual love is like and Barry’s correct when he says, “I have so much strength in me you have no idea. I have a love in my life. It makes me stronger than anything you can imagine.” Even nearly 23 years later, Sandler remains a marvel, offering a performance that we can look back on as the beginning of some truly impressive work (Uncut Gems; Hustle; Spanglish), even while still delivering the laughs audiences expect from the comedian (Hotel Transylvania series; Hubie Halloween). But we didn’t know then what he was capable of and it took everyone by surprise. And what a surprise Punch-Drunk Love is as Anderson’s film still packs the same punch, sending one reeling with the sense of isolation and desperation of just trying to connect with someone about anything. Connection is key to survival, as is finding your people. Do that, and you can accomplish anything. And that’s that.
Punch-Drunk Love Special Features:
- 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Paul Thomas Anderson, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Interview with Brion
- Behind-the-scenes footage of a recording session for the film’s soundtrack
- Conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake
- Blossoms & Blood, a short piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, with music by Jon Brion
- Additional artwork by Blake
- 2002 archived Cannes Film Festival press conference
- 2000 archived NBC News interview with David Phillips, the “pudding guy”
- Twelve (12) Scopitones
- Deleted scenes
- Mattress Man commercial
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by filmmaker, author, and artist Miranda July
- Cover by Dustin Stanton
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD February 4th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official The Criterion Collection Punch-Drunk Love webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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