What was Paul Thomas Anderson thinking!??

Alana Kane is a SEX OFFENDER! Look I know we're feeling all nostalgic and cute about the story but the ages are really a problem. He could have made them any ages but he chose to make him 15 and her like 25?? School photographer exposes herself to a student. Their entire relationship is not right. It's such an overly literalistic entitled male way of thinking to say well technically they never consummated it. Imagine if the genders were reversed. Imagine the headlines in the newspaper. It doesn't matter how romantic it seemed to them. It was a wildly inappropriate relationship. Anderson engages in some gaslighting and denial in interviews about this saying that there's not a controversial bone in the film's body but it really is a major problem.