This is a real tough choice.
When it pertains to the Canon as a spectrum of what cinema is as a medium how do you decide? Is it the film that announced the arrival of one America's great modern autuers or the film that cemented him as such?
Boogie Nights is the film that launched Anderson into the critical world as a filmmaker to pay attention to and where he got the first full taste of creative freedom, down to even demanding final cut from Michael De Luca before signing the deal with New Line. It's the film he first got to play with all the toys; from the amazing cast to the period setting. It's also the film where he wears his influences so obviously on his sleeves; like other filmmakers of his generation. He's remaking Goodfellas by way of Altman. A film about not the family you're born with but the family you choose wrapped up in the delicious kitschyness of the late 70s-early 80s porn industry.
I do believe that There Will Be Blood cemented Anderson as an american autuer. A graduation into modern, adult storytelling. Whereas his earlier films felt like a filmmaker who had to exorcise his cinematic influences, TWBB is him at his fullest realization. A period piece look at america's obssession with power and wealth. Not to shy away from his influences entirely; it's Treasure of Sierra Madre as envisioned by the exacting detail of Kubrick. The storytelling is precise and exacting, the perfomances from DDL and Paul Dano is some of PTA's best and most subtle male-friendship dynamics, and the cinematography will be studied for years to come. It will very well go down as PT Anderson's masterpiece. But to be honest it's a summation of a fully realized artist. A filmmaker at full command of his craft. The culmination of the potential first glimpsed in Boogie Nights.
But should TWBB go into the Canon over Boogie Nights? Should a filmmakers Masterpiece go in over the film that established them as the filmmaker critics and audiences should watch? It's probably a fools errand but I think Boogie nights should go into the canon because it is the film that shot Anderson into the cinematic culture as a truly unique voice. Especially considering, as was discussed in the Usual Suspects episode, how so many filmmakers of his class were playing in the same pulp crime sandbox with a film like Sydney/Hard Eight, a genre that's so tightly associated with Anderson's contemporary Quentin Tarantino.
TWBB may be Anderson's (up to now) masterpiece, but Boogie Nights is the film that opened my eyes to film-making and made me a devout Anderson follower. That's why I say it goes in.
