THE MASTER (2012) P.T. Anderson's film on the origions of Scientology (sort of), Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Laura Dern

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1560747/

stoked for the madness.

No running time...Haven't unequivocally loved a PTA film since Boogie Nights, but every one's an adventure.

haha wow, this is going to be great

http://www.narconon.org/drug-rehabilitation/l-ron-hubbard-ocean.gifhttp://images.nymag.com/daily/entertainment/20090116_hoffman_190x190.jpg

i'm saying!!

there's a casting call soon for some of the WWII scenes being shot here

is pta really going to take two years making this? i'd guess he isn't aiming for a january 2013 release. had thought he was doing 'vineland' with robert downey jr too. look forward to that towards the end of the decade.

sounds like he started filming in June.

Great as this sounds I hope the Inherent Vice adaptation comes first.

is pta really going to take two years making this? i'd guess he isn't aiming for a january 2013 release. had thought he was doing 'vineland' with robert downey jr too. look forward to that towards the end of the decade.

without knowing much about it or how these things work, i read somewhere that they were maybe gonna film the two things back to back & then edit, with the assumption that editing would take a year, per there will be blood

stoked for the madness.

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, August 3, 2011 1:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It's titled "The Master" yet there is no John Simm to be found. Sad.

no http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/files/images/henry_james_(george_eastman_collection)296c.jpg no credibility

jesse plemons of FNL as PSHs son is intrstng

I am not confident that this will be a better Scientology film than Mock Up on Mu:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-forgotten-sticky-figments

sounds like he started filming in June.

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, August 3, 2011 9:45 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yah http://www.ifc.com/news/2011/06/paul-thomas-anderson-the-master-photos.php

http://www.examiner.com/community-in-san-francisco/mare-island-one-huge-film-set-for-new-big-budget-movie

Heads up:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/master-paul-thomas-anderson-october-release-megan-ellison-297353

Also I'm terribly amused by that Mare Island link just above as I lived there from 1979 to 1981 when it was still a Navy base.

stoked for the madness.

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, August 3, 2011 1:37 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, August 3, 2011 1:19 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like this idea. would be cool to see what films buffet and gates would throw their money behind.

philip seymour hoffman and joaquin phoenix, laura dern and amy adams

p.t. anderson and, er, himself

Something something or other:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/movies/paul-thomas-anderson-film-may-be-about-scientology.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9oZDKFoCqAw

Worth embedding! Maybe this link will let it happen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oZDKFoCqAw&feature=youtu.be

Ah hell. Well, yeah, it looks pretty intriguing. Phoenix almost looks like Fassbender there. Pretty excited.

<3 joaquin

fucking amazing trailer

Was just about to post it. Great, great stuff.

oh hell yes

nice.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Excellent - can't wait for some Hubbard footage

Rah! Just watched it twice through. I'm stoked.

the only way i could be more psyched for this is if there are aleister crowley & jack parsons analogues in the movie because their association w/ the hubb

that is pretty much exactly what a trailer should be. hope the movie is that good!

xpost -- got that goddamn right

the only way i could be more psyched for this is if there are aleister crowley & jack parsons analogues in the movie because their association w/ the hubb

omg what if

is he making a boob out of sand?

how would you rate your overall health?

strrrong

Actually you know, what if the whole supposition has been a bit of a blind and it IS all about Hubbard/Parsons/Crowley rather than just Hubbard straight up? The time period is right given the look of the trailer, and it suits the title.

will lose my shit if there's a Parsons (or Crowley) analogue in this

amy adams as marjorie cameron???

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/cameron.jpg

probably not tho!

radiohead's jonny greenwood is doing the score for this, for those who care about such things. i thought he did a fantastic job with both There Will Be Blood and Norwegian Wood.

was there ever a movie made about parsons? that entire story with the three of them is so bonkers

I thought the music in that trailer sounded very similar to Greenwood's TWBB score.

tbh i would watch this for the wrestling seamen alone #pvmic

i almost auditioned to be an extra in that scene!!!

gr8080, mind if I change the year in the thread title now that it has a 2012 release date?

i question the wisdom of adapting pynchon not really a writer that makes you think "this should be a movie"

― lag∞n, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 11:52 AM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

btw lol his next film 2025 VINELAND

I haven't killed babies since enduring PDL all those years ago but if I watch it again no one will stop me, not even me.

while i recognize pdl isnt his best film i do think its funny, the one i actively dislike is magnolia, grandiose and stupid with a ton of begging ass 90s bs, trying to get that tarantino dough

phantom thread > the master > TWBB > the rest

you gotta put boogie nights in there baby

Phantom Thread gets more mischievous with each viewing (I can see this happening with Haynes' May December). It tops my list.

idk which i like best of "the big four" theyre all good in their own ways

punch drunk love is awesome, I'm allowed to have my own "Dirty Work is the Rolling Stones' Best Album" opinion, alf.

John C Reilly losing his gun makes Magnolia top tier for me

https://i.imgur.com/zXaRQkZ.png

Lloyd George looks like the most chill of the Big Four imo

I'm allowed to have my own "Dirty Work is the Rolling Stones' Best Album" opinion, alf.

lol fair

though Dirty Work is certainly not the Stones' best.

no way gotta go clemenceau he looks like a walrus dressed up in a suit, who doesnt love that xp

inherent vice and licorice pizza are my top two, you guys are all squares imo
jk

i love master & phantom thread too and boogie nights etc etc

omg forgot about licorice pizza, another winner

he's on quite a roll

As much as I like The Master, I rate it lower than his more recent efforts mainly because I felt he didn't want to lean on the Scientology (and delve into what it is to be a leader or subject of a cult) aspect too much and the film becomes this battle of wills between the two actors with a lot of scenery chewing big acting. Which is fine, it's a good movie just doesn't hit me as hard as his other ones.

think i've watched this movie twice, in theaters, in 70mm, and barely remember anything about it. other than the guy would make this awesome cocktail. looked really good. put a kick in your day. i dream about being able to drink something like that.

Do you have access to torpedo fuel?

that got me doing a little googlin' and so i came across this delightful sentence:

Well that's an excellent question because we see people accidentally swallowing gasoline all the time, I mean it's a daily occurrence here in Utah and the important thing to know is that if you swallow gasoline and it goes down to your stomach, it's really not that big of a deal, other than you're going to be burping gasoline for about 24 hours, that's not real tasty, but it will keep going, it's not absorbed very well in your gut.

what are people doing in utah? siphoning gasoline, it turns out

just utah stuff

Loved this movie, I see it sometimes described as a buddy movie and I guess it sorta is

Utah has restrictive alcohol laws so if you find yourself with a hangover on Sunday morning, unleaded 87 might be the only buzz in town

Utah State Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUA9FUTieKA

at its heart it's the "me and my bro goofing around" movie

― mh, Wednesday, April 1, 2020 10:00 AM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I liked their relationship, just two guys who want to have adventures surrounded by a band of joyless pedants.

― lag∞n, Monday, October 1, 2012 6:23 AM (eleven years ago)

Laura Dern does some of the best acting that has ever been done in the one little scene where she quizzes PSH about the nonsense and he yells "what do you want from me, Helen!?" at her, and she turns away shattered

I saw this in the theatre with my mom. She’s really into salacious Scientology scandals and isn’t super into “high brow” film. Her paraphrased review: “I didn’t know it was just going to be about.. two guys being guys”

she gets it

I think it worked better as a metaphor for Scientology.. that way they can't complain about little errors in the details

And PSH's character was sympathetic at times, whereas Hubbard was a deluded pervert monster

Reading a really interesting book on the Sullivanians, a cult-like commune out of New York from the '60s right through to the '90s.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374600396/thesullivanians

They're not mentioned in this thread. Anyone who knows the origins of PTA's film better than I do, is there any connection there?

Watching this for the first time now.

My favorite PTA film, and also one Hoffman's finest performances... be interested to hear your take tomorrow

(I'm biased because it's obviously very California-centric)

i havent rewatched this is ages, i need to give it another spin

its so good

fellas, is it gay to just want to drink rocket fuel with your bro until your brain sizzles

just bros being bros

Last posted on this in 2016, when I saw it for a third time (or second; I posted about drifting for 30 minutes the first time). So this was my fourth time. Or third.

"still not sure what it's trying to say"--me, 2016.

Still not sure--me, 2025. I actually thought of Mad Men tonight, which I hadn't seen when The Master came out (but had finished by 2016). Two stories about how men of roughly the same age dealt with the war when they got home. Anyway, after feeling more positive about the film after that third viewing, this time I reversed course again. Hoffman's very good, and Anderson has that John Ford/George Stevens feel for wide open spaces. But it all felt very muddled. Amy Adams has kind of a nothing role. And Phoenix's performance again struck me as very affectatious. Impressive, in a way, but I think he's been better in other films since. It was interesting to me to see Jesse Plemons and Rami Malek in prominent roles; would have had no idea who they were in 2012.

I like it better than Phantom Thread for sure, but not as much as There Will Be Blood.

What makes it slightly better than Phantom Thread?

Philip Seymour Hoffman beats DDL any day

His second-least-successful after Dogs, for me, but still wholly conceived and apprehensible. The minor weaknesses are a failure to commit to an alternate character / timeline for the elements that aren’t Hubbard, and Phoenix’ performance coming unmoored as it proceeds, whether from the former (PSH’s substitute by design doesn’t give the audience enough to believe that a cult of personality could compel the virile, directed Phoenix*), or Phoenix himself not finding his own character reprehensible enough to commit to portraying (probably the latter, given his turns in Vice and Eddington).

Phantom Thread is so distinct a portrait of a time, a personality, and two-to-several relationships, that it stands head, shoulders and sandy nipples above The Master for me - but I saw each on 70mm ad haven’t rescreened either, thinking streaming unfair by comparison.

*JP has made a career of this since — the leaning in makes one wonder how much was mere technique and whether his characters performance here is top-level silly fun.

Have you watched Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here? No commitment problems.

I'll take Lewis' performance in Phantom Thread any day over PSH's hamming in The Master. Lewis is helped by a better script, but he does a much better job of performing three-dimensional human with layers and interiority. Hoffman and Phoenix just both feel like they're having an acting contest in The Master, to me. It reminds me of Husbands more than anything else - they’re sure acting A Lot, but a lot of it ends up feeling like hot air and wheel-spinning.

an acting contest? idk. i think they're just in love

L. Ron Hubbard was a ham, I mean c’mon

uh i love Husbands and I love the Master. Probably prefer There Will Be Blood but it's apples and oranges and yes they're in love

the job for PSH in the Master is to go full Ham

Yes ofc them being in love is not very easy to miss, I think you can pick that up from the theater next door, even.

Hoffman obviously has big hammy role that calls for big hammy acting moments and he delivers as-promised, but I just think PTA is a little too in awe of him & Phoenix and loses control of the movie to them (imho, anyway). I see it as a transitional film for PTA, exploring and figuring out his mature style, but I much prefer the films that came after it when he has a little more control over the material.

(yes, I thought about caveating the consistency of You Were Never Really Here. Could be his choice or Ramsay cutting out any performance that went OTT, ofc — and Aster & PTA obv genuinely enjoy his performance joyfully leaving rails in the distance. He stays fairly on-message throughout Napoleon, too, at least the theatrical cut.)

Performances aside, I think PTA really excels at building time & place in The Master... this post-war California with a wary sense of optimism, and the blossoming counterculture that would later develop into the freaks of the 'Sixties.' Casting was pretty spot-on as well

(Also I think that boat is moored in Oakland... It was owned by both FDR and briefly Elvis Presley)