The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson)

[Boner M]

IMDb

[Boner M]

Wow this wasn't good to see at 8:30am after 4hrs of sleep.

It's definitely a step forward for PTA in its sheer craft, even if it's his most problematic film since Magnolia. Oblique to a fault at points, though that could've just been my early morning grogginess speaking. As a period piece, it's utterly transporting; and its evocation of postwar malaise is spot-on. Most of all, the love story at its centre is really sad and tragic in a low-key, elusive way, and I found it way more emotionally affecting than TWBB for that reason. Phoenix is magisterial, and Hoffman exciting for the first time in ages. The final scenes pack a quiet punch.

The 70mm was guhhhhhhhh

[

Show Spoiler

"PIGFUCK"

]

[Boner M]

Kent Jones' piece, as ever, is magnificent.

[Pop Trash]

Kent Jones' piece, as ever, is magnificent.

Weird...I was just in the middle of reading this, and yes, it is superb. Who knew Jones had all this knowledge of old weird Americana?

[Pop Trash]

I think it's funny that the pop-up shows for this were simultaneously geared towards our insta/interwebz/twitter age (I GET TO SEE THE MASTER B4 U HAHA!) but the movie itself is so densely not made for a few sentence insta-review (SAW DA MASTER LOL WUT?!).

[Watashi]

The 70mm was guhhhhhhhh

Is this good or bad?

[Derek]

I think it's funny that the pop-up shows for this were simultaneously geared towards our insta/interwebz/twitter age (I GET TO SEE THE MASTER B4 U HAHA!) but the movie itself is so densely not made for a few sentence insta-review (SAW DA MASTER LOL WUT?!).

Twitter is the bane of film criticism, though primarily because most critics aren't as pithy as they think they are. And b/c pithiness in criticism gets really fucking old, really fucking quick.

Is this good or bad?

It's PTA in 70mm. It can't be a bad thing.

[Milky Joe]

Cannot fn wait

[baby doll]

I eagerly await Armond White's review.

[Ezee E]

To continue from the other thread, I think it was Pop Trash that said PTA got self-indulgent after Boogie Nights with some of the choices he made in Magnolia. I watched it again yesterday, and I think it was the movie after that in which he had the biggest ego explosion on film. I love Punchdrunk Love still, don't get me wrong... I think it's a great thing to get out of him so that it led to the ways of TWBB.

The sequence in which Emily Watson asks out Adam Sandler is so perfect and strange, best thing about the movie.

[baby doll]

Does anybody else find it vaguely depressing/creepy how people seemed to be praising this movie as a masterpiece even before it premiered? Obviously I want to like this movie (as I've liked all of Anderson's previous films), but after all the fanboy drooling over each trailer and clip to be leaked online, I have to admit that a part of me was hoping that reviewers would uniformly hate it just to see the online shit storm that would occur. After all, the fact that nerds have taken to issuing fatwas against reviewers for critical heresies like bashing Christopher Nolan movies indicates that the principal function of a reviewer is merely to ratify the hype. Or to put it another way, the reason that reviewers' annual ten best lists are so depressingly similar is that awards season hype has a way of making certain films seem important while consigning others (perhaps equally deserving of attention) to oblivion; specifically, looking back on last year, would as many reviewers have put A Separation--as good as it is--on their ten best lists had it been distributed by Strand Releasing (instead of Sony Pictures Classics) and opened in March rather than December?

[Mr. McGibblets]

After all, the fact that nerds have taken to issuing fatwas against reviewers for critical heresies like bashing Christopher Nolan movies indicates that the principal function of a reviewer is merely to ratify the hype.

That might be what a few hundred people on the internet think the function of a reviewer is, but it's a gargantuan leap to go from there to declaring that's what their function actually is.

[Sven]

Does anybody else find it vaguely depressing/creepy how people seemed to be praising this movie as a masterpiece even before it premiered?

Happens all the time. I'm surprised you're asking the question.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Bought my ticket. Excite.

[Watashi]

Good movie is good.

[MadMan]

Or maybe perhaps reviewers actually think the movies they see are really great, and that other reviewers also thought those movies were great, and so those movies crack the best of the year lists. Shocking, I know...

[Watashi]

I really want to write a lot about this because it's just so mesmerizing.

I really don't think the structure is that complex. At the film's center beyond the parallels to Scientology, is the story about two lonely men who wrestle with being in control and out-of-control on a daily basis.

I don't know if it was intentional, but I spotted a lot of influence of Ernest Hemingway all throughout The Master. The film could work as a visual companion to The Sun Also Rises and the rise and fall of the Lost Generation. Freddie is the ultimate modernist character who relies on alcohol, sex, violence, and endless wandering to wash away his post-war psyche. He's always trying to run away yet somehow gets roped back into the world he's trying to escape.

I want to see this again as soon as possible.

[Pop Trash]

I don't know if it was intentional, but I spotted a lot of influence of Ernest Hemingway all throughout The Master. The film could work as a visual companion to The Sun Also Rises and the rise and fall of the Lost Generation. Freddie is the ultimate modernist character who relies on alcohol, sex, violence, and endless wandering to wash away his post-war psyche. He's always trying to run away yet somehow gets roped back into the world he's trying to escape.

I want to see this again as soon as possible.

Right...Steinbeck is another literary allusion. Grapes of Wrath in the vegetable fields, Of Mice and Men with JP's character having a Lennie ability to keep fucking everything up, Cannery Row in the coastal setting and the metaphor of the sea "washing up" disperate people together.

I also really need to see this again to grasp a lot of it.

[Dead & Messed Up]

This was excellent, and the melancholy was just so intense and vivid. By the end, I was deeply sad...in a good way. I just kept thinking, "This man needs help...and this man truly wants to help...but this is all so toxic." My chief complaint - a minor one - is that there were all these intriguing characters at the sides, but Anderson will at most give them a scene or two to show us their story. Maybe. I wanted moar.

I couldn't decide if Joaquin Pheonix was channeling Shaggy from Scooby-Doo or a dying vulture. Either way, lovely work.

[baby doll]

Or maybe perhaps reviewers actually think the movies they see are really great, and that other reviewers also thought those movies were great, and so those movies crack the best of the year lists. Shocking, I know...

I'm not saying they don't like these movies, just that their top ten lists are systematically skewed towards late-year releases--in part, because these films are fresh in their memories, but also the climate of hype which makes some movies seem "big" and others "small." That said, obviously the vast majority of reviewers aren't interested in challenging movies (Dan Kois, Anthony Lane, Christy Lemire, Leonard Maltin, Rex Reed, Peter Travers, to a lesser extent Roger Ebert), and are perfectly content to cheerlead for whatever Harvey Weinstein has on tap for this year (hence, The Artist cleaning up at last year's New York Film Critics Circle Awards).

[ledfloyd]

i would argue that Paul Thomas Anderson directing a film alone makes it seem "big" in comparison to other movies. his pedigree separates it from your typical late-season hype machine like The Artist.

[Derek]

Yeah, this was fantastic. I mean goddamn, does PTA get great performances out of just about all his actors or what? I certainly disagree with Boner's "oblique to a fault" complaint since the alternative is having more clearly defined character motivations, which for me, would ruin what's so fascinating and complex about Phoenix's character. He's not merely a drifter attempting to escape the world or his "demons" through booze and sex; he's a primal force that defies categorization and flies in the face of all forms of systematization (social, psychological, scientific and mystical) simply through his innate ability, or perhaps compulsion, to follow his own instincts without being hampered by a need to conform, seek approval of others or, especially, see the world in absolutes. He really is representative of the birth of modernism, both in his post-war outsider role (although I liked that PTA is purposefully ambiguous about how much the war actually reshaped his psyche since it seemed like he was probably already a little nutso beforehand) and because of his resolute rejection of the traditionally concrete perspectives on reality, the need to conform to a socially approved code of morality and answer to a higher power.

There's a lot to unpack, so I definitely need another look to get a better grasp on this one, but loved it.

[Watashi]

Did you see it in Cinerama Dome, Derek? I saw it at midnight last Thursday. I don't think I can see it traditional 35mm anymore.

[Derek]

Did you see it in Cinerama Dome, Derek? I saw it at midnight last Thursday. I don't think I can see it traditional 35mm anymore.

No, at one of the regular Arclight Hollywood screens. It was still 70mm and I don't like the curve on the Dome screen for movies like this. But it certainly was eye-poppingly crisp and added so much depth to the frame. It's been a few years since I've seen anything in 70mm...forgot how glorious it is.

[Pop Trash]

Ebert is not a big fan:

http://rogerebert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/...IEWS/120919984

I dunno, I feel like most of the criticisms (see also the Derek and Boner discussion) would make the film less interesting. I don't think the film is that obtuse, plus unlike There Will Be Blood, there were no moments that took me out of the film or that were poorly handled.

Also, Ebert recently credited The Girlfriend Experience to James Toback and put a Beverly Hills Cop photo up for an American Werewolf in London rec on his fb page, so make from that what you will.