Blossoms & Blood

Essentially the offcuts from 'Punch-Drunk Love (2002)', 'Blossoms & Blood (2003)' more-or-less distills the story of Paul Thomas Anderson's best movie into twelve minutes all while using material deemed unfit for the full film. It's much calmer than its counterpart, told entirely with the ethereal stylings of the artistic interludes that occur sporadically throughout that picture (and with none of its chaotic anxiety). There does come a point at which the experience starts to lose its grip on your attention, feeling sort of like something that plays on loop projected on a white-washed wall at an art museum that you look at for a bit and then saunter away from before it actually hits its reset point. That doesn't dampen the effectiveness of this experiment, though, as it's a neat little way to present deleted scenes and alternate takes while forming a pseudo narrative of its own. It's a nice change of pace, but it undeniably lacks substance and impact when compared to the so-called real deal. It's perhaps as good as it could have been, and it definitely has a distinct effect that's worth experiencing, but it's difficult to claim that it's anything much more significant than a suitably strange Blu-ray bonus feature.