page_title: Punch-Drunk Love
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Punch-Drunk Love / Reception / Critical reception
context_page_description: Punch-Drunk Love is a 2002 American black comedy-drama romance film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzmán and Mary Lynn Rajskub. It follows an entrepreneur with social anxiety in love with his sister's co-worker. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and New Line Cinema, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It features the video art of Jeremy Blake in the form of visual interludes. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Sandler's performance receiving widespread acclaim, but failed to recoup the $25 million production budget at the box office.
context_section_description: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 194 reviews, with an average rating of 7.43/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Odd, touching, and unique, Punch-Drunk Love is also delightfully funny, utilizing Adam Sandler's comic persona to explore the life of a lonely guy who finds love." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale.
  Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four. He praised Sandler's performance in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, saying, "Sandler, liberated from the constraints of formula, reveals unexpected depths as an actor. Watching this film, you can imagine him in Dennis Hopper roles. He has darkness, obsession and power. He can't go on making those moronic comedies forever, can he?" The film came in at #33 in The A.V. Club's "Top 50 films of the '00s".
  Sandler went on to win Best Actor at the Gijón International Film Festival for his performance and was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Anderson won the award for Best Director at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or. The film was nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics.
  Filmmakers Lee Unkrich, Judd Apatow, Barry Jenkins and Taika Waititi, and actors Bill Nighy, Owen Wilson and Timothée Chalamet have cited it as one of their favorite films.
caption: (L to R) Adam Sandler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
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