I would like to specifically apologize to my good friend Evan Woss, who has been lost in the world of movies without my opinions published on a blog. Please, forgive me, my dear friend.
I started off this rebirth of my blog going to see a movie I had long anticipated. A film that had captivated me from it's first teaser trailer about 4 or 5 months ago. It was also the return of, in my opinion, a very underrated actor after his "retirement" from acting, which subsequently was confirmed by the actor as a hoax for his film, I'm Still Here. That film was written and directed by the Great filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. The Master.
The Master follows the post-war life of Naval veteran Freddie Quell, played by Joaquin Phoenix, in his attempt to restart a normal life after seeing the tragedies of war. Along the way, the often inebriated Freddie stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Lancaster Dodd is the leader (or the Master) of the cult called "The Cause", and he makes it his mission to "cure" Freddie of his life-style and "wake him up" from the lie of life.
Freddie embraces the ideas forced upon him by the Master despite being spoken to as if he were a dog or a child, and becomes an active member in the cult. but soon he begins to question the validity of everything his Master is saying.
I'm not going to lie, I'm not one to act like I understood something that I in fact did not. I won't try to make up some false deeper meaning of a film if I didn't come to realize this on my own or at least learn about it and believe it from someone else. I didn't fully grasp everything going on in this film. Perhaps I had to much on my mind, or perhaps I'm too stupid. But what I can tell you is that I liked this movie a lot!
Complete understanding of this film aside, I thought the acting on everyones part was superb. There were times where I completely forgot that Joaquin Phoenix was Joaquin Phoenix. He submersed himself in his character and let Freddie Quell take over. I loved him. I hate him. I loved him. I pitied him. He abused himself in such a way that I felt his pain. He didn't hold back at all. I would be shocked if he didn't at least get an Oscar nomination for his role, let alone win it.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a perfect opposition to Phoenix. His character was completely in control. He controlled every part of his life. Anytime someone questioned his lies, he made it seem as if he were the victim.
Paul Thomas Anderson, once again, has made a great film. He knows how to tell a story without any dialogue. The first twenty minutes of There Will Be Blood proved that. Lancaster Dodd's whole life is told in one shot because of Anderson's brilliance, just with the subtlety of having his seat in-between his daughter and son-in-law at their wedding showed how self-centered he was. That one shot explained to the audience who he was, and that he only truly cared about himself.
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One thing I did notice was the relationship between the two main characters was completely different than that of the main characters in Anderson's last movie, There Will Be Blood. In that film, they hated each other but were civilized with each other (with the exception of a few moments). And it all ended in chaos.
In The Master, both Quell and Dodd loved each other. Or at least it seemed that way. Their relationship was chaos with a few moments of them being civil. And it ends with the civility of the two.
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Despite not completely understanding it. Despite being to dense to fully grasp what was going on, The Master proved to be a great film that I enjoyed and would love to watch again to better understand it.
My Grade: B+
