Punch-Drunk Love

Once Adam Sandler first started chasing a giant penguin in Billy Madison, it was clear that he could do weirdo…and that he enjoyed animals in ways far different from the rest of us. In Punch-Drunk Love, he teams up with Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) and things get even weirdo-er. Sandler plays Barry Egan, a quiet man taken advantage of one too many times before all of his rage spills out for our shits and giggles. But instead of a light comedy, Anderson builds a seriously warped tale around Sandler’s Tourette’s-style outbursts—and with this oddball flick comes a variety of equally odd additions on DVD. “Blossoms & Blood” is filled with alternate takes, alternative artwork, and music (of the alternative persuasion), while “12 Scopitones” is no more than a curious flourish of colors that fade in and out of various scenes from the movie. Slightly less bizarre, and a lot more amusing, is Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character maiming himself during a commercial shoot for his Mattress Man chain of stores. Yeah, most of the extras are complete nonsense, but the movie is worth it—despite the absence of any Sandler-on-oversized-animal action.