Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Master

This is topic The Master in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stu Jamieson (Member # 4626) on 11-17-2012, 05:39 PM:

Nobody's seen this yet? Are you folk ill?

Every year there's at least one film which is critically acclaimed to a high degree which you look at and wonder where the merits are. Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is that film for me. Maybe it's that bromance films just don't appeal to me for this is, in essence, what this film is.

In my opinion PTA's films see-saw alternately between brilliance and relative boredom. Boogie Nights and Punch Drunk Love are fabulous films but their follow-ups, Magnolia and There Will Be Blood, while punctuated by brilliant performances, failed to go anywhere particularly interesting. The latter two films, in conjunction with The Master, form a triptych of projects where father-son relationships are core to the proceedings and, perhaps because I have no like issues of my own, this is something I simply cannot relate to in any profound way.

The intended direction of the film is bewildering, to say the least. After 2+ hours of Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman) spruiking quasi-religious nonsense and Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) behaving in an unpredictable manner, it's unclear what the point of the story actually is. No character arcs seem to develop; every character finishes the film much as they started. Quell is still a recalcitrant drunk and Dodd remains a loopy self-righteous predator.

Admittedly the performances are good but we expect nothing less from this troupe and none are exemplary with respect to their own canon of work. Personally, I would have preferred Phoenix to channel Daniel Day-Lewis a little less.

This is a film to appeal to the Paul Thomas Anderson die-hards only.

4 out of 10.

Posted by Jonathan Goeldner (Member # 4854) on 12-01-2012, 10:45 PM:

this was worse than 'There Will be Blood' which came across as pompus. why was this even filmed in 70mm? beats me?