For audiences, Paul Thomas Anderson is a real pisser. His films embrace distressing subject matter such as the lives of pornographers (Boogie Nights) and dissipated gamblers (Hard Eight) with humanity and humility. Chaos in his films presents itself with brutal grace – the harmonium in Punch-Drunk Love, or the rain of frogs in Magnolia. He is, proudly and testily, his own artist – as you will witness at tonight’s Film Independent Evening with Paul Thomas Anderson. Will he tell you how much he’s tired of talking about fake cocks and Scientology? Will he take questions from both his devotees and detractors? It is unclear. Afterward, there’s a screening of a film that has influenced his work – the identity of which is, at press time, also unclear. Anderson presents the spectrum of life as one that includes shunned colors like dark blank and a desperate variety of off-plaid, a worldview that is as frustrating as it is exciting – ultimately exhorting you to, in the words of Anderson’s father, Ernie (who was horror TV host Ghoulardi): “Stay sick!” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd.; Fri., Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m., $20. (323) 857-6010, filmindependent.org/lacma.

Fri., Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m., 2012

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