Anderson's ‘Phantom Thread’ Is Exquisite

After mining the American soul (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master”) as brilliantly as any working director has in the last 50 years, Paul Thomas Anderson moves to 1950’s England for “Phantom Thread,” his mesmerizing follow-up to the loosey-goosey “Inherent Vice.” An elegantly stitched romance of vector-crossing emotional neediness, it’s set in an evocative ecosphere of haute couture fashion.