Read Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks

With the Oct. 20 release of Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks, Toronto film writer Adam Nayman (best known for bringing respectability to a much-maligned flop with his book It Doesn’t Suck: Showgirls) continues his streak as the Matt Zoller Seitz of the Great White North. Just as he did with his 2018 book The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together, Nayman comes up with a unique take on the director and his filmography. Instead of examining Anderson’s films chronologically in terms of release, Nayman lines up the films in order of when they took place, laying out how these films (with the exception of his U.K.-based Phantom Thread) mostly serve as an alternate history of dreamers, misfits and outcasts who are trying to make something of themselves in California — basically, people like Anderson. Also included are essays on the movies that inspired Anderson and interviews with Anderson’s collaborators, such as cinematographer Robert Elswit, composer Jonny Greenwood and Phantom Thread co-star Vicky Krieps. Buy it via Parnassus Books. CRAIG D. LINDSEY