Punch-Drunk Love (Blu-Ray)

Chaos lurks in every corner of this giddily off-kilter foray into romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson. Struggling to cope with his erratic temper, novelty-toilet-plunger salesman Barry Egan (Adam Sandler, demonstrating remarkable versatility in his first dramatic role) spends his days collecting frequent-flyer-mile coupons and dodging the insults of his seven sisters. The promise of a new life emerges when Barry inadvertently attracts the affection of a mysterious woman named Lena (Emily Watson), but their budding relationship is threatened when he falls prey to the swindling operator of a phone sex line and her deranged boss (played with maniacal brio by Philip Seymour Hoffman). Fueled by the careening momentum of a baroque-futurist score by Jon Brion, the Cannes-award-winning Punch-Drunk Love channels the spirit of classic Hollywood and the whimsy of Jacques Tati into an idiosyncratic ode to the delirium of new romance.

Special features:
– Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Paul Thomas Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
– Blossoms & Blood, a short 2002 piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, along with music by Jon Brion
– New interview with Brion
– New piece featuring behind-the-scenes footage of a recording session for the film’s soundtrack
– New conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake, used in the film
– Additional artwork by Blake
– Cannes Film Festival press conference from 2002
– NBC News interview from 2000 with David Phillips, the “pudding guy”
– Twelve Scopitones
– Deleted scenes
– Mattress Man commercial
– Trailers
– PLUS: An essay by filmmaker, author, and artist Miranda July