Paul Thomas Anderson Has a New Battle: The ‘Melania’ Documentary
Paul Thomas Anderson has had a pretty good few months.
The beloved director released his long-term passion project One Battle After Another (based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland) to critical acclaim. However, like many of us, he is having to deal with the annoyance that comes with living in a world where the Trumps are constantly in the news. Unlike the general despair that many Americans and others are feeling, though, Anderson has a very particular gripe, and it’s with the president’s current and least charismatic wife.
Anderson and long-time collaborator Johnny Greenwood have requested music from PTA’s 2017 film Phantom Thread, which the Radiohead guitarist composed, is removed from the recently released documentary Melania. The film follows the Slovenian in the days leading up to her husband’s second inauguration, and was directed by Epstein associate and MeToo stalwart (in all the wrong ways) Brett Ratner.
Phantom Thread is a critically acclaimed psychological historical drama about a high-end mid-century London dressmaker and his complicated relationship with his muse. Melania is widely considered to be a bribe from Jeff Bezos, or at the very least a depressingly obvious example of Hollywood accounting a la The Producers. The Paul Thomas Anderson period piece delivers phenomenal performances from Daniel Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville, whereas the title star of Melania has the screen presence of a haunted paintbrush, the First Lady apparently preferring to save her acting for when she has to pretend she’s attracted to her husband.
Republicans have a substantial recent history of using music by artists who hate their politics, so much so “Musicians who oppose Donald Trump’s use of their music” has its own extensive Wikipedia page. Anderson and Greenwood join illustrious names like Beyoncé, Elton John, and Prince. These musicians have mostly been successful in their attempts to free their songs from the greasy fingers of Trump and co, but we’re yet to see if PTA and Greenwood will also regain control of their content.
(featured image: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for Santa Barbara International Film Festival)
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