Paul Thomas Anderson worked with Joaquin Phoenix and was successful.
Inherent Vice (film) . The seventh feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson , Inherent Vice was adapted by Anderson from the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon ; the cast includes Joaquin Phoenix , Josh Brolin , Owen Wilson , Katherine Waterston , Eric Roberts , Reese Witherspoon , Benicio del Toro , Jena Malone , Joanna Newsom , Jeannie Berlin , Maya Rudolph , Michael K. Williams and Martin Short . Paul Thomas Anderson . Anderson received critical and commercial success for his film Boogie Nights ( 1997 ) , set during the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s and 1980s . Anderson 's sixth film , the drama The Master ( 2012 ) , was released to critical acclaim . The Master is a 2012 American psychological drama film written , directed , and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Joaquin Phoenix , Philip Seymour Hoffman , and Amy Adams .