31. Hard Eight

Paul Thomas Anderson's debut feature, Hard Eight, was dumped into a limited release by its distributor just seven months before the writer-director's sophomore effort, Boogie Nights, would overshadow it completely. The film rivals Punch-Drunk Love as Anderson's most focused work, zeroing in on the themes of regret and redemption that continued to weave through Boogie Nights and Magnolia. Playing out against the casinos and hotel rooms of Reno, Nevada, this noir­-flavored character study stars Philip Baker Hall as Sydney, an aging gambler who takes a down-on-his-luck drifter named John (John C. Reilly) under his wing. The surrogate father-son relationship that develops between them is deeply poignant and more emotionally resonant than the similar bond between Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) and Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) in Boogie Nights. When John falls for a waitress/hooker (Gwyneth Paltrow) even more naïve than he is, things take a decidedly dramatic turn, but to reveal any more about the plot here would be criminal.

Despite fantastic supporting turns by Reilly, Paltrow, and Samuel L. Jackson, this is Hall's show all the way (the film's original title was Sydney, but the distributor changed it). Behind Sydney's poker-faced facade lie hints of a life full of painful regrets, and as Hard Eight slowly unfolds, it reveals itself as the story of his quest for redemption. The final scene packs a quietly devastating punch and perfectly encapsulates the oft-repeated line from Magnolia: "We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us." (Michael B. Scrutchin)