The Master

Lancaster Dodd: If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world. My third PTA film and I don't think I was prepared for this film very well to be honest. This wasn't as direct as Magnolia or There will be Blood at all, which is my mistake because I felt it was a story going somewhere, well in fact it turned out to be a story about going somewhere. Don't pay heed to the rating I gave. It is solely because the movie missed for me, or rather I missed with this. I'll definitely rewatch this because I want to understand it fully. The Master felt more like a character study than a movie about Freddie and Lancaster Dodd, who each have something that the other desires. Freddie is his own master, which is characterized by his sexual desires, violent impulses, alcoholism. However, he yearns for acceptance. A family. On the other hand, Lancaster Dodd is the master of The Cause and its followers, however not himself, which is characterized by his loss of temper whenever someone questions him about his beliefs. He thinks he knows the secrets to life and makes everyone else believes that too, but has to hide his real personal self in order to do so. Dodd wants Freddie's impulsive way of life, or at least he is jealous of it thus subjects Freddie to so many psychological evaluations. To fix him. But Freddie is unfazed. How can you fix somebody who doesn't believe there is something wrong with them? Freddie doesn't understand the Cause but stays because he is treated as a member of the family. And like I said I didn't understand the movie just bits and pieces of it and a general sense. For the technicalities, the cinematography was amazing, and everything about the film from the score to the screenplay, pacing, dialogues, plot, editing, score, visual effects, character development was great. What stood out for me was the performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix, because goddamn. One of the best duo I have ever seen on the screen. They owned every seen they were in. Joaquin is literally nowhere in the film- it is all Freddie. Don't make the same mistake of hoping the answer to present itself in the third act of the movie. Watch it yourself and find out