The Master

The way people use this website to let everybody else know how funny or clever or smart or successful they are drives me up a fucking wall. Using formulas to make sure your rankings are a bell curve fuck youuuuuu fuck you. I. Hate. You. Paul Thomas Anderson is a Master director. And a Master screenwriter. I saw an instagram reel earlier calling him basic I was so fuming fucking mad. This is a great showing from PSH and Joaquin. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Phoenix just going at it like two heavyweight boxers. Splendid. I enjoyed the movie and the score. It’s shot in a wonderful and impressive way. There are a few shots that take your breath away, especially early on, but every shot is successful however subtle. JP’s physicality is stupendous, the way he bends his elbows out? Amazing. Philip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as this larger than life figure. He should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor that year. Christoph Waltz? Are you kidding me? For Django Unchained? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! Phoenix is great, on the other hand, as this smaller than life figure, you know? This gremlin making hooch out of paint thinner getting into physical altercations at every opportunity. Great score by Jonny Greenwood. I was never the biggest Radiohead fan but I’m sure he’s very talented. I never liked Phoenix, he always put me off. I know it might sound strange but this is in the nature of open, honest discussion. Maybe I don’t like him because he reminds me of that bug Adam Friedland. Here I liked him, I think because the character suits him or at least how I see him. I felt the same way about Rami Malek, who usually I don’t like but here I didn’t mind him. Laura Dern, who I do usually like, I liked here, like usual. It’s a small role but she makes the most of it. I liked Jesse Plemons. I liked Amy Adams, she crushed it. Totally killed it, and her hair fit her perfectly. L. Ron Hubbard was always a very interesting figure to me. When I was young my father would always laughingly regale me with the ridiculous beliefs earnestly held by Scientologists. He learned this from South Park, of which he was a huge fan. I liked the needle drops. Early on, when he’s photographing people in the mall, in that montage these in color, flesh and blood, moving actors totally look straight out of photos from back then I don’t know how he did it. It’s all about sex or lack thereof. And male friendships “WHO FUCKING LIKES YOU EXCEPT FOR ME EXCEPT FOR ME!” it’s a great representation of that, male friendships. Protagonist visits old girlfriend’s house with a five letter name that starts with D and he’s mentally disturbed and thinks about her all the time? And her mother is there but she isn’t and he withholds pertinent information? And also he rides a motorcycle on flat desert until he disappears into the heat waves of the distance? MMMMDERIVATIVE OF BROWN BUNNY METHINKS And I’m not going to rate it 5 stars. How could it be perfect. It’s not perfect I’m not going to do that you can’t make me. Girl at the end was pretty. I’d love to get you. On a slow boat to China. All to myself. Alone.