Hard Eight

Before his commercial breakthrough with Boogie Nights (1997), writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson made this low-key drama. John (John C. Reilly), a half-bright loser stranded in Reno, is down to his last few bucks when Sydney (Phillip Baker Hall), taking pity on him, buys him breakfast and offers ...more

Filling the gap between the violent chic of Quentin Tarantino and the clever obtrusiveness of the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson was one of the most critically lauded filmmakers to emerge in the late 1990s. Before the stylistic explosions of his breakthrough Boogie Nights (1997) and its follow-up, Magnolia (1999), however, he made the equally skillful Hard Eight (originally titled Sydney). Barely released in theaters, the film was rediscovered on video following the success of Boogie ...more