The Master
“For if you figure out 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.”
This guy Paul Thomas Anderson really gets a kick out of making movies that make no sense off of one watch. Much to my disappointment this is now the second time I’ve experienced this with a PTA film after having a very similar feeling after my Inherent Vice screening. Neither one of these films have any real noticeable faults or any real reason for me to not like them, they just both didn’t click with me.
The Master is a very psychological experience, headlined by a powerhouse of a cast with two fantastic leading performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. As well as a more subdued but still haunting performance from Amy Adams. The acting is one of the major highlights of the movie to me, I love Hoffman’s character and he’s probably my favorite part of the movie. This film looks amazing which is something I think is pretty much fair to expect at this point from all PTA films. You can tell so much care goes into each and every shot, as well as making sure everything feels accurate to the time. The costumes and locations are just as beautiful as the shots themselves. That shot of Phoenix over the ocean is rightfully iconic and probably one of my favorite shots I’ve ever seen.
I wanted to like this so much more. It felt as if I was so close to grasping “the point” of it all throughout the whole film but it just kept evading my grasp and I’m still pretty lost to be honest. As it sticks with me mo, and I read other peoples analysis I can make sense of it a bit more, but coming to my own conclusions has definitely been a struggle. This definitely feels like yet another PTA film that I’ll have to rewatch to fully understand. While there are definitely worse punishments then having to sit through such a convincing atmosphere such as this for another two and a half hours, it honestly is just a little frustrating though to not be able to understand these films off of a single watch.
I wonder how many talks PTA had with Tom Cruise on the set of Magnolia about Scientology in order to get inspiration. I also wonder how many watches it will take me to appreciate this the way I want to. 6/10