More so than with other directors, it’s always tempting to overly psychologize Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, looking for traces of his personal development and hints of autobiography: the father figures of “Magnolia” or “The Master,” the partnership of “Phantom Thread,” parenthood in the new “One Battle After Another.” Yet two things truly set his work apart. There’s the incredibly high level of craft in each of them, giving each a unique feel, sensibility and visual identity, and also the deeply felt humanism: a pure love of people, for all their faults and foibles.
Anderson is an 11-time Academy Award nominee without ever having won, a situation that could rectify itself soon enough, and it speaks to the extremely high bar set by his filmography that one could easily reverse the following list and still end up with a credible, if perhaps more idiosyncratic ranking. Reorder the films however you like — they are all, still, at the very least, extremely good. Simply put, there’s no one doing it like him.
Perhaps nothing marks Anderson as a filmmaker from the ’90s as much as his impeccable use of music, from the drowned-in-sound deluge of “Boogie Nights” to his ongoing collaboration with Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood as a composer. So just to add to the arguability of the following list, we’ve also noted a favorite song or two from each movie, the song titles often becoming surprise summations of the plots themselves.
This list is made in good faith, without any purposeful stuntery (honest). Feel free to let us know how your opinions vary.
For over 40 years, Scott Anderson has been one of America’s most incisive foreign correspondents, filing dispatches from trouble spots around the world with a novelist’s eye and a talent for disentangling complex issues. The author of seven previous books, Anderson’s latest is “King of Kings,” an immersive history of the events that led to the 1979 downfall of the shah of Iran and the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s theocratic republic. Anderson traces the roots of the Iranian revolution to the U.S. government’s sponsorship of the 1953 coup that restored Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power. A creeping co-dependency between the U.S. and Iran followed, abetted by massive military and oil contracts, at the same time that U.S. representatives in Iran turned a blind eye to the shah’s abuses of power and, later, Khomeini’s anti-Western jihadism.
I spoke with Anderson about his book, and the long tail of missteps that led to the occupation of the United States Embassy by Khomeini’s followers on Nov. 4, 1979.
Newsletter
You’re reading Book Club
An exclusive look at what we’re reading, book club events and our latest author interviews.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
✍️ Author Chat
Author Scott Anderson.
(Nanette Burstein)
The overall feeling I get reading the book is fecklessness and foot–dragging on the part of the American government in the service of protecting our oil sales and military contracts with Iran. There seems to be a complete misunderstanding of, well, just about everything.
Even after the revolution when Khomeini had come in — that nine month period before the hostages were taken — the Americans pretty much replicated the mistakes they’d made with the shah. There’s this whole idea of like, well, they’re going through this revolutionary anti-American fervor right now, but they need us. They’re going to come back around because our economies are so intertwined. All their weapons are American, so they’re going to need us to service them. So there’s just this manner that everything was going to work out and, of course, that became institutionalized.
With a few exceptions, none of the U.S. officials in Iran even spoke Farsi. You talk about how they had all those cassettes of Khomeini’s speeches in the drawers at the CIA and no one bothered to translate them.
So Khomeini comes back from exile on Feb. 1, 1979, with 4 million people greeting him. He goes to the cemetery to give his inaugural speech and the Americans don’t even send an embassy worker. They don’t even send a local out to the cemetery to hear the speech. They didn’t know whether it is a pro- or anti-American speech. It was just astonishing.
Do you feel like 1972 is the turning point? This is the year that President Nixon lifted all restrictions for arms sales to Iran.
I really do. And for what I think is a pretty interesting reason. The shah was a congenitally insecure man. He could never be affirmed enough. And it doesn’t matter how many presidents said, “You’re our man,” he always needed to hear more and more. So what happened in ’72 was the shah’s dream came true. He had knelt at the feet of FDR in 1943. Kennedy was dismissive of him. He had always been trying to push in the door with the Americans. He’d been humiliated again and again. And now he’s got carte blanche from Nixon and Kissinger. This is when you saw the huge escalation in arms purchases and the catapulting of the Iranian military into the first tier of militaries around the world.
Do you think the revolution could have been prevented?
I spent a lot of time studying the revolution as it unfolded, and what struck me was how mysterious the whole thing was, how it came to be. There were so many moments where the outcome might have been different. If the shah’s confidante Asadollah Alam hadn’t died in the early days of the revolution, for example, because he was decisive and the shah was not. There were so many odd quirks that took things down a certain path.
📰 The Week(s) in Books
Justin Currie, lead singer of Scottish rock band Del Amitri, chronicles his struggle with Parkinson’s in the book “The Tremolo Diaries.”
(Colin Constance)
“Helen Oyeyemi’s books are getting weirder — and I mean that in the best way,” Ilana Masad writes about the author’s new novel, “A New New Me.” “Such whimsy … could be overwhelming, but Oyeyemi is such a confident writer … that you know you are in good hands.”
R.F. Kuang’s new novel, “Katabasis,” is “a dark academic fantasy” that is “more mature and less showy” than the author’s earlier works, according to Valorie Castellanos Clark.
David Baron has written a book called “The Martians” about the frenzy over extraterrestrial life that gripped America at the turn of the 20th century, and Chris Vognar approves. Baron “approaches his subject with clarity, style and narrative drive,” he writes.
Finally, Stuart Miller talked with Justin Currie of the band Del Amitri about his new book, “The Tremolo Diaries,” about Currie’s struggles with Parkinson’s disease.
📖 Bookstore Faves
Malibu Village Books is the only general interest bookstore in Malibu. We spoke to owner Michelle Pierce about the beachside literary hub.
(Malibu Village Books)
Malibu Village Books is the first new bookstore to arrive in the beach city in 15 years. A small yet inviting space with a well curated selection of books, the store has had its share of challenges over the past year. I spoke to the store’s owner, Michelle Pierce, about it.
This is the first new bookstore to open in Malibu in quite some time. How did you come to open it?
I also own Lido Village Books in Newport Beach, and the owners of the Malibu Village Mall came by and liked what I was doing there, so they asked me if I wanted to open a store in their mall.
The fires have affected us enormously. With the Franklin fire, we lost so much of our holiday book sales, and then the Palisades fire shut down PCH for six months. So our sales are definitely down, and the summer tourism traffic has not been what it should be, so yes, we are definitely in a challenging period.
What about the locals? Are they shopping in your store?
Local residents are really excited that we’re here. We have a lot of active book clubs, and we’re working with the library on a lecture series at the Soho House, where we will bring in authors to speak. We’re still fighting, and the community is definitely supporting us. It’s true what they say — bookstores are all about community.
Malibu Village Books is located at 23359 Pacific Coast Highway #23359, Malibu, 90265.
After making a reboot of The Naked Gun movies together, Liam said of Pam: “I’m madly in love with her.”
He also joked that his favourite part of making The Naked Gun, which opened on August 1, 2025, was “the sex scenes”.
The pair were given an intimacy co-ordinator for those scenes, with Liam adding: “I’d never had one before. But she was in the background. There was no kind of, ‘OK! Excuse me!’.”
Read More on Pamela Anderson
And Pam said of her co-star: “I think I have a friend for ever in Liam and we definitely have a connection that is very sincere, very loving, and he’s a good guy.”
She added: “He really is a silly guy. He acts like a silly little boy sometimes.”
So with Pam’s new romance truly blossoming, here we take a look at her previous husbands.
On January 20, 2022, a year after the pair wed, it was announced that Pamela had filed for divorce from Dan.
Pamela Anderson transforms into broken Las Vegas showgirl for stunning new film – as fans predict Oscar nomination
“I’m exactly where I need to be – in the arms of a man who truly loves me,” Anderson told the Daily Mail at the time.
Tommy Lee
9
Actress Pamela Anderson and musician Tommy Lee attend PETA’s 35th Anniversary Party at Hollywood PalladiumCredit: Getty – Contributor
Pamela’s first marriage was to Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee in 1995.
The pair got hitched just four days after meeting, and shortly after their whirlwind wedding, their sex tape sensationally leaked online.
Anderson and Lee were married for three years and had two sons together, Brandon and Dylan.
They split after Lee assaulted Anderson while Dylan was still young. After Lee served six months in jail, he and Anderson reunited, at some point, but ultimately split again in 2001.
They reconciled once more in 2008 and even lived together, but their reunion was short-lived.
Kid Rock
9
Pamela Anderson shares a drink with her husband, US musician Kid Rock the day of their weddingCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Anderson was married to musician Kid Rock from 2006 to 2007.
They got together in 2001, became engaged in 2002, and broke up in 2003. Three years later, they announced their second engagement to the world.
Anderson suffered a miscarriage while the pair were married and the two divorced shortly after, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Rick Salomon
9
Pamela Anderson and Rick SalomonCredit: Rex Features
In 2007, Anderson revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that she was engaged to Rick Salomon.
That year, the two wed at The Mirage in Las Vegas, but they divorced just ten weeks later citing “irreconcilable differences.”
In February 2008, the marriage was officially annulled on the basis of fraud.
On the Ellen show again in 2014, she told the host that she and Salomon were friends with benefits. Saloman and Anderson remarried again that year, but they divorced in 2015.
Jon Peters
9
Pamela Anderson and Jon PetersCredit: Instagram
Anderson first dated Jon Peters over thirty years ago.
“There are beautiful girls everywhere,” Peters, a film producer, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“I could have my pick, but for 35 years I’ve only wanted Pamela. She makes me wild — in a good way. She inspires me. I protect her and treat her the way she deserves to be treated.”
The two wed in a secret ceremony in January 2020. Anderson wrote a poem about Lee and provided it to the outlet. It read:
“Jon is the original ‘bad boy’ of Hollywood/ no one compares/ I love him deeply like family. His life used to scare me. So much for a girl like me. Now I’ve seen more of life and realize. He’s been there all along. Never failed me/ I’m ready now and he’s ready too/ We understand and respect each other/ We love each other without conditions/ I’m a lucky woman/ Proof God has a plan.”
9
Anderson and Peters met thirty years agoCredit: Getty Images – Getty
They divorced just twelve days after they married.
Anderson denied their union in a tweet after the pair separated, saying: “Pamela Anderson was never legally married to Jon Peters (life long family friend) no hard feelings – no Marraige [sic], no Divorce… just a bizarre theatrical lunch – Pamela has a good sense of humor about it.”
