Back in 2007, if you had asked me who Paul Thomas Anderson was, I would have assumed you meant the piece of shit who made the Resident Evil movies. I intentionally don’t call them films because they are fucking awful. But that was before I saw There Will Be Blood and fell in love with PTA’s style. I was absolutely mesmerized by absolutely everything about this film, so I went out and saw all of his movies: Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and Boogie Nights. While Boogie Nights isn’t my favorite film, the other two really fit in with the same style I saw in There Will Be Blood. Needless to say, I was really excited for The Master.
The Master follows the story of Freddie Sutton (Joaquin Phoenix), a returning Naval veteran who becomes fascinated when he comes across The Cause and it’s alluring leader, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman.) I don’t think I want to say much more about the plot than that, as I feel it would ruin the movie. I really think this film hinges on getting to know the characters and not so much on the events that transpire.
Let me just lay my cards out on the table right now: I fucking love PTA. In my eyes, he can do no wrong. So, when I say that he fucking nailed it with The Master, understand that I would say that about his last 3 films as well. I think this film is just steeped in PTA-ness. It has that feel that all of his films have had, and will (hopefully) continue to have. All of the colors are so vivid and the expansiveness of the film translates so well to film. He chooses his shots so carefully and it is so obvious in the finished product. I don’t even know where to begin with describing all of the beauty in this film, so I’ll just pick a few scenes that jumped out at me. One of the most beautiful shots in the film is the tracking shot where we watch Freddie running through a cabbage(?) farm. That scene is just fucking gorgeous. And so is the scene where Freddie and Lancaster are riding the motorcycle. But the scene that blew me away was the first time that Lancaster is processing Freddie. There are no words to describe how phenomenal that scene is, from every aspect. The acting is spot on, the scoring is excellent and, most of all, the direction is perfect.
Since PTA writes all of the movies he directs, they also have very similar scripts. They are all scripts that are very heavily weighted in character development. These are what I, and most other people, would call character pieces. These aren’t your usual blockbuster/action-y scripts where 30% is just descriptions of battle scenes. The lynchpin of every scene is the dialogue. Every sentence is important to understand one of the characters, whether it be backstory or character motivation: it’s all important. I loved this script, it was really well written and had some exquisitely written lines that had me floored. While the film did drag at times, I still think it was an excellent script (though I do think some of the pacing problems came from editing, rather than the script.)
The real shining light of this film, just like all the other PTA films, is the acting. All of his films contain such visceral characters, but they can only reach their full potential if they have capable actors to portray them. Every single member of this ensemble brought their A game, but no one was better than Joaquin Phoenix. If this man didn’t despise award shows and the politic behind them, I guarantee you he would win everything for this film. And Philip Seymour Hoffman was just as good. Both of these characters contrasted each other in such a beautiful way. I loved watching the scene of them both in jail cells and seeing the clear differences between how they reacted to the situation.
The last thing I want to talk about, and probably the best thing about this film, is the score. Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood delivers another breathtaking score, akin to that of 2007’s There Will Be Blood score. If I had to liken this score to anything else in the last few years, I would say it reminds me a lot of what Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor did with The Social Network. I was really disappointed when Greenwood was disqualified from Oscar consideration in 2007, but I think I’m even more upset that this year he was eligible and didn’t even get a nom! Blasphemy. But you’ll hear more about that when I give my Oscar predictions soon.
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If you couldn’t tell already, I loved this movie. I’m not sure if it is my favorite PTA film (though I do think it is visually his best), but it is definitely one of his best. It is definitely worth it just to see Joaquin Phoenix give his best performance ever (or at least as good as Walk the Line and Gladiator) and to hear Johnny Greenwood’s beautiful score. I wouldn’t suggest this film to people who have short attention spans (I’m looking at you Jen) or people who rely on plot development (cough Bonni cough) to enjoy a film. This is definitely a character piece, and you should know that before you take the plunge.
Writing: 8.5/10
Directing: 9.5/10
Acting: 10/10
Pacing: 7/10
Rewatchability: 6/10
Score: 8.2/10
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