# What is the best Paul Thomas Anderson movie of all time?

> Sprawling ensemble epics, obsessive character studies, and one of cinema's most intense relationships with Daniel Day-Lewis — his filmography is pure cinema. Which one tops them all?

*By YPB Team · Published April 9, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-paul-thomas-anderson-movie-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **There Will Be Blood**
   Daniel Day-Lewis is a monstrous oil prospector in early 20th century California, delivering one of the greatest screen performances ever.
2. **Boogie Nights**
   A sprawling ensemble portrait of the porn industry in the 1970s and 80s, full of humanity and excess.
3. **Magnolia**
   An interwoven mosaic of Los Angeles lives on the verge of emotional breakdown, climaxing in one of cinema's most audacious moments.
4. **The Master**
   Joaquin Phoenix plays a drifting WWII veteran drawn into a cult-like spiritual movement in postwar America.
5. **Punch-Drunk Love**
   Adam Sandler's finest hour — a strange, tender romance about a lonely small businessman overwhelmed by love.
6. **Phantom Thread**
   Daniel Day-Lewis's final role: a fastidious London couturier whose obsessive world is disrupted by an unexpected muse.
7. **Licorice Pizza**
   A nostalgic coming-of-age story set in San Fernando Valley in the 1970s about two misfits falling in and out of love.
8. **Hard Eight**
   A mysterious older gambler takes a down-on-his-luck drifter under his wing in Reno — PTA's quiet, confident debut.

Tags: movies, directors, usa, paul thomas anderson