Before Paul Thomas Anderson established himself as one of the great filmmakers of his generation with notable career-defining movies like Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood, he already proved his directorial prowess in his 1996 debut, Hard Eight. The familiar “too good to be true” phrase hits hard in Nicholas Kazan’s (son of the legendary Elia Kazan) debut, underlining a cautionary tale about a recently divorced architect (James Spader, in his typical yuppie role), who falls in love at first sight with the seemingly perfect woman (a stunning Madchen Amick), only to find himself deceived by her throughout their time together.