It’s rare these days to have a cinematic experience where you can’t help but know you’re witnessing something special, a once-in-a-lifetime sort of film from a once-in-a-lifetime sort of filmmaker. This is the case in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, a miraculous gem of a film from a filmmaker one can’t help but call an auteur, as he has crafted a truly one-of-a-kind experience that is hard to wrestle with, but is ultimately as rewarding as the film is challenging.
Much like his last directorial effort, There Will Be Blood, Anderson has executed his vision with a miraculous clarity, a kind of brutally visceral experience that tests the audience’s willingness to completely lend themselves to the talents of such a filmmaker. It’s a difficult experience that is hard to enjoy in the typical sense of the word, but is a cinematic wonder nevertheless.
Building upon his past films, Paul Thomas Anderson executes his typical brand of filmmaking that has earned him his place among the modern-day greats, despite only having six feature films under his belt. While perhaps less visually arresting and overall less accessible than There Will Be Blood, The Master features the usual difficult themes and visual style we’ve come to expect from Anderson. Because of this, The Master faces perhaps the most ridiculously high expectations in recent memory, as film lovers everywhere seem to expect the definitive work of, not only Paul Thomas Anderson, but filmmakers everywhere.
What does Anderson do to answer these expectations? He creates a wholly uncompromising piece of art. Perhaps loosely based on Scientology and the religion’s creator L. Ron Hubbard, The Master is named after Lancaster Dodd, played with an arresting and evocative power by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is simply referred to as “master” by those around him. Dodd has created a faith-based religion centered around the idea of using “applications” to travel back in time to one’s past lives. Chillingly called “the Cause,” this organization subscribes to the belief our bodies are simply temporary vessels for the soul, which when unlocked can be used to better understand our current state of being in the universe.
The organization, which can be essentially referred to as a cult, holds a whole host of other wild ideas based on the philosophies of the “master,” which are articulated by his impressive presence and staunch beliefs in his own teachings. Yet Dodd is not the film’s central character, instead Anderson focuses on Freddie Quell, a lost soul struggling with alcoholism and a whole host of other issues as a Navy seamen returning from war in post-WWII America.
Freddie Quell, portrayed with the power, physicality and gravitas to match the subject matter by Joaquin Phoenix, stumbles onto Dodd’s yacht looking for work as a seamen. For Dodd, Quell is the type of lost soul the Cause is able to draw in. Quell is an emotionally unstable, anguished soul, and Phoenix captures the near-torturous demands of Quell with a physicality only he could pull off. Hunched over, one eye bulging with a constant sneer and a drawl, Phoenix fully realizing the nature of this character and portrays every scene with an eerie, masterful presence unlike anything seen all year.
If nothing else, The Master features the most powerful performances amassed in a single film in recent memory. As Dodd brings Quell under his wing and we get a clearer glimpse into the Cause, the mastery of the performances only increases.
Just as each conversation and scene between Hoffman and Phoenix features a type of bravado that will leave you floored, Amy Adams brings her own weight as Dodd’s wife, Mary Sue, who is as essential to the Cause as Dodd himself is. Adams brings a chilling quality to Mary Sue, who is clearly a powerful player in the Cause, and who carries more than enough responsibility for both the Cause and its effects on Quell. With each emotional shift Quell undergoes, the deranged, often manic, characterization Phoenix gives to the role increases to the point you’ll question the sanity of Phoenix himself – very rarely has a performance so thoroughly encompassed all the terrible power of its character.
Quell lives his life with an unhealthy need for independence. With every moment that may cage him, whether physically or emotionally, Quell shows an inability to face this possibility, and consequentially lives life alone and forever seeking happiness and personal acceptance and satisfaction. Just as Quell is impossibly unstable, Dodd is the opposite, a counter-weight that attracts its opposite. The two are an unlikely pair, and yet feed off each other’s weaknesses to build a complex, emotional friendship.
Technically, The Master soars. Projected in absolutely gorgeous, pristine 70mm, Anderson and cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. have wonderfully captured the ’50s era look down to the last detail. Just as with There Will be Blood, Anderson again employs Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood to compose the score, which is suitably hypnotic and bombastic, as the percussion blasts through each powerful scene.
Refusing to follow any typical story-structures, The Master is a difficult film to grasp. Anderson has stuffed it full of themes and ambitions that overpower the film’s narrative. It’s a psychological film to its core, as The Master will dig deep into your consciousness as you attempt to unravel all the many-layered messages it has to offer. The film is such that there will be varying messages and themes to be found, depending on your own personal relationship with it. It is so densely packed despite its 2 hour and 10 minute running time that The Master demands multiple viewings and days of thought.
Just as my own views on the film have dramatically evolved and changed over the past few days, they will continue to do so in the coming weeks. It is a difficult film to enjoy, or truly be drawn in by. The filmmakers keep the audience at arms length in many scenes, but one thing is for sure: it is a difficult masterwork from a very special auteur. The Master breaks down a relationship between two men to its core; a study of the physical and the spiritual. This is perhaps above all else what is at the film’s forefront. It is a gorgeous, difficult, wondrous, perverted, animalistic, cryptic, hypnotic, strange, and perhaps above all, utterly captivating film.
Grade: A
Rated: R (for sexual content, graphic nudity and language)
The Master was screened publicly at the Castro Theater in San Francisco on August 21 to benefit Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation. It hits theaters in New York and LA on September 14.