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.

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 05:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― clemenza, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 05:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

haha wow, this is going to be great

― lizard tails, a self-regenerating food source for survival (wk), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 07:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

― lizard tails, a self-regenerating food source for survival (wk), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 07:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

i'm saying!!

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 08:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 08:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

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.

― sarahel hath no fury (history mayne), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 08:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

sounds like he started filming in June.

― ( •ิ.•ั) (gr8080), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 08:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 10:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― (oboe interlude) (schlump), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 11:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

stoked for the madness.

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

― ice cr?m, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 11:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Super Villains With Drum Machines (MintIce), Wednesday, 3 August 2011 12:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

no no credibility

― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 12:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

jesse plemons of FNL as PSHs son is intrstng

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 3 August 2011 13:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― satan club sandwich (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 August 2011 04:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― caek, Saturday, 6 August 2011 04:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― caek, Saturday, 6 August 2011 04:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

Heads up:

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

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 21:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

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.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 21:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― ⚓ (gr8080), Wednesday, 7 March 2012 22:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― beachville, Thursday, 8 March 2012 11:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― desperado, rough rider (thomp), Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

p.t. anderson and, er, himself

― desperado, rough rider (thomp), Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

Something something or other:

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

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 April 2012 18:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Simon H., Monday, 21 May 2012 15:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

Worth embedding! Maybe this link will let it happen?

― Walter Galt, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Walter Galt, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:15 (1 year ago) Permalink

<3 joaquin

― johnny crunch, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

fucking amazing trailer

― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

oh hell yes

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

nice.

― jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS.

― wolf kabob (ENBB), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

Excellent - can't wait for some Hubbard footage

― Brakhage, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― how's life, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― tylerw, Monday, 21 May 2012 17:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

xpost -- got that goddamn right

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 17:21 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― cosi fan whitford (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, 21 May 2012 17:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

is he making a boob out of sand?

― caek, Monday, 21 May 2012 17:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

how would you rate your overall health?

strrrong

― caek, Monday, 21 May 2012 18:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

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.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 18:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

amy adams as marjorie cameron???

probably not tho!

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:18 (1 year ago) Permalink

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.

― Mad God 40/40 (Z S), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― dell (del), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― judas, a homo (elmo argonaut), Monday, 21 May 2012 18:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― ♆ (gr8080), Monday, 21 May 2012 19:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

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

― Trey Imaginary Songz (WmC), Monday, 21 May 2012 19:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

you're being generous, 'surreal' doesn't need rescuing, it was never all that profound to begin with. xxxxp

anyway i agree with imago. when it comes to daddy issues i think spielberg offers a lot more to think on

― In The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, Van Cleave makes unforgettabl (Matt P), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:22 (2 months ago) Permalink

xpost about the manly love between 2 drunk dudes

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:23 (2 months ago) Permalink

I didn't sense the man-love in this one.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:25 (2 months ago) Permalink

the master is basically about a lost father, right? it seems v sad about this but isn't actually self-aware about it whereas spielberg has seen his share of therapy, i'd rather listen to that guy on the subject, plus he has the good sense to make his movies about something tangentially exciting.

― In The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, Van Cleave makes unforgettabl (Matt P), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:26 (2 months ago) Permalink

i don't think one can really say it's "about" a lost father any more than it's about ptsd or about being frustrated by a lack of romantic/sexual satisfaction etc

― da croupier, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:27 (2 months ago) Permalink

at least PTA's sound and fury signifies something, albeit something narrow. grasping at straws here but at least he isn't christopher nolan

― c'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas le beurre (imago), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:30 (2 months ago) Permalink

though def part of my problem with the last 1/3rd is i don't think he really went anywhere with father issues and love/sex issues that he hadn't already hit with magnolia

― da croupier, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:30 (2 months ago) Permalink

fair point though i think the latter is very much related to the former. on that note i'm forgetting that i like how the master ends at least. xxp the final scene makes some progress i think? (don't remember how much was covered in magnolia).

― In The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, Van Cleave makes unforgettabl (Matt P), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:32 (2 months ago) Permalink

last scene does kind of tie the two themes, where you see how the damaged apprentice stars to employ the devices of the master - "Boys become lovers who fuck like their fathers, so fathers be good to your sons too"

― da croupier, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:33 (2 months ago) Permalink

Having only seen excerpts of this on YouTube etc, but also having just read Going Clear, seems like Hoffman and Phoenix might be playing two sides of the same coin: Hubbard's the hazy, yarnspinning charmer and the secret, increasingly desperate seeker, esp coming out of WWII, with all sorts of alleged ailments. Eventually claimed to have eventually cured himself via cosmic insights---the basis of his science and gospel--though there's no evidence of such ailments in his actual military medical records, as presented by GC author Lawrence Wright. Evidence of crazy initially comes more from his journals, but later plently of eyewitness testimony to the way he went go back and forth from urbane blaggermoth to screaming tyrant, during the years at sea (talking about when he was the Commodore of his Sea Org, but come to think of it, he was also in the US Navy during the War, so maybe a return to and amplification of associated enturbulation, to use the Church term). Phoenix also seems kinda like LRH's successor, David M, and that whole "secret" side of Church practices.

― dow, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:36 (2 months ago) Permalink

hmm i do think there's something particular about the way the scenes unfold in the master that is hard to dispense with because the movie isn't profound enough or w/e. i like the apocalypse now comparison.

xxp i saw the last scene as a bit more ambigious/potentially joyful than that, like he's using some of the devices but to mixed ends that aren't all about self-destruction.

― In The Magical Breasts of Britney Spears, Van Cleave makes unforgettabl (Matt P), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:38 (2 months ago) Permalink

yeah i didn't mean to say it wasn't ambiguous

wonder how the film would have felt if they cast someone closer to 30, or even 20, rather than 40 in the quell role. esp with his obsession over a teenage love. how old was he supposed to be when running off to sea?

― da croupier, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:40 (2 months ago) Permalink

I didn't really sense the homoerotic aspect, or the father-figure stuff, beyond the most surface and obvious. Quall is far more damaged/insane/confused/troubled than a search for a father would aid. He seems like one of cinema's few truly directionless souls. You can spin him and point him, but he's always going to end up where he started. He's primal and feral and would probably be happiest hanging with the apes at the beginning of "2001." If anything, Quall is there to show the limitations of Hoffman's metaphysical quack therapy.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:40 (2 months ago) Permalink

I don't really think it's so much homoeroticism as platonic love between men

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:42 (2 months ago) Permalink

the first 30 minutes are so strong, it's like a highlight reel. the beach babe, the PTSD, the masturbating, the interview with the military officer, macy's, the weird fight with the guy he's taking a picture of (love that), sharecropping, escaping, onto the boat.

It's a watchable movie that never becomes great imo. Its power is mostly in the first 45 minutes.

agree. the Scientology plot/themes in this "film on the origins of Scientology (sort of)" seem either muddled or hackneyed. like PTA sat down thinking boy do I have some BIG things to say about MANKIND here, when really he shoulda just had Joaquin get in more fights at dept stores and spared me the quasi intellectualism.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:47 (2 months ago) Permalink

Huh, I didn't think this was trying to be particularly intellectual, either! I thought all the theological stuff was gibberish, with Quall the uncrackable nut. Surprised this movie didn't end with Quall beating Hoffman to death at a bowling alley, because it very well could have.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:59 (2 months ago) Permalink

This guy thinks HE'S the Master...but his wife just ordered him around while yankin his crank, so who's REALLY the Master, bam.

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Sunday, 17 March 2013 19:03 (2 months ago) Permalink

The mastur

― dat neggy nilmar (wins), Sunday, 17 March 2013 19:08 (2 months ago) Permalink

oh yeah, EL Ron also had a badass wife, Mary Sue (whoo-hoo)

― dow, Sunday, 17 March 2013 21:08 (2 months ago) Permalink

although she def got her comeuppance

― dow, Sunday, 17 March 2013 21:10 (2 months ago) Permalink

I find the PTA of "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights" fun but facile, showcasing an effective technician whose formidable talent sort of outreaches his emotional grasp. But then, he was a lot younger then.

Couldn't disagree more, at least with regards to Boogie Nights. (Not with the idea that PTA was younger then. This is true.) I'll forgo the standard white elephant vs. termite comparison (even though I think The Master/Boogie Nights illustrates the point perfectly), and instead borrow something Sarris once wrote about George Stevens: the PTA of Boogie Nights is a minor director with major virtues, now he's a major director with minor virtues.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 01:44 (2 months ago) Permalink

boogie nights is totally white elephant.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 01:58 (2 months ago) Permalink

nor it is really that sprawling or exuberant--it's sort of enervating.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 01:59 (2 months ago) Permalink

I don't think so at all, not if you go back and look at Farber's original formulation of the difference.

"Good work usually arises where the creators (Laurel and Hardy, the team of Howard Hawks and William Faulkner operating on the just half of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep) seem to have no ambitions towards gilt culture but are involved in a kind of squandering-beaverish endeavor that isn’t anywhere or for anything. A peculiar fact about termite- tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity." -- Boogie Nights

"The three sins of white elephant art (1) frame the action with an all-over pattern, (2) install every event, character, situation in a frieze of continuities, and (3) treat every inch of the screen and film as a potential area for prizeworthy creativity." -- The Master

Sometimes I prefer white elephants. Not in this instance.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:05 (2 months ago) Permalink

well we'll have to respectfully disagree but that's definition of white elephant lines up pretty well with how I regard boogie nights (a movie I like but find very callow). It could be a holdover from my teenaged self venerating it as a masterpiece and revisiting it later and finding it woefully below that bar. Not its fault necessarily.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:17 (2 months ago) Permalink

But I think at minimum BN is definitely a movie with a big cohesive ambition to that doesn't fit the quality of "isn't anywhere or for anything." If anything the movie pretty much draws its continuities with the same overtness as magnolia does, just with arguably a lighter touch and scorceseisms.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:22 (2 months ago) Permalink

I love "Boogie Nights," but it is so beholden to the sum of its influences in an almost distractingly overt way, from its biographical inspiration (Holmes, et al.) to its stylistic affections (Scorsese, I am Cuba, etc.). Lots of fun, everything's great, but still a young guy showing off across the board.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:23 (2 months ago) Permalink

BTW, saw "magnolia" again perhaps for the first time since having a family of my own, and my response was very different from what I felt the first time I saw it. It was pretty devastating. Still had more than its share of show-offy bits and indulgences, but I love its go-for-broke ambitiousness. Again, that's why I think he needed to do "Punch Drunk Love." He had to force himself in a different direction, because the melodrama and filmmaking of "Magnolia" was about as far in that direction as he could go.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:25 (2 months ago) Permalink

I should say that I don't pretend to understand everything Farber says there--he could be pretty cryptic. The central idea, yes, but I'm not holding The Master's frieze of continuities against it, primarily because I haven't a clue what that means.

I've never gone back to Boogie Nights and not loved everything I first loved about it. Certain moments will come back to me in the middle of the day--"Those are great names!"--and I'll smile. I would have been 36 when it came out...I understand what you mean, though; the teenaged me venerated many films that fell woefully short later (e.g., Manhattan).

I've been all over the place with Magnolia: knocked out initially, found it oppressive within two or three more viewings, went back to it last year and, exactly, loved its go-for-broke ambitiousness.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:32 (2 months ago) Permalink

i think the concept of 'termite art,' as least the way farber defines it there, excludes almost anyone who had any self-conscious artistic ambitions for their work. actual '70s porn films would probably qualify before 'boogie nights' would.

but i've gotta admit i've never quite understood what farber was talking about in that essay -- like, the concepts of 'white elephant art' and 'termite art' make perfect sense until you go back and read farber and he hits you with like four impossible concepts per sentence. like what exactly does it mean to 'treat every inch of the screen and film as a potential area for prizeworthy creativity'? do any films actually do that?

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:51 (2 months ago) Permalink

it's like the "metaphysics of filmic presence" or something--not really a concept that withstands scrutiny.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 02:59 (2 months ago) Permalink

i was super into this, a lot of it kind of felt like a horror movie to me in that i was waiting for some crazy sick thing to happen out of these long lingering situations.

i think my only objection is the lingering "lol bitches" misogyny that PTA trucks in (amy adams as the fanatic enforcer, laura dern as the textually alert dupe -- both of whom were flat out great tho). idk i might be overreading that, but it was def one of the things (among many) that me me hate punch drunk love

― goole, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:14 (2 months ago) Permalink

btw if you get this on disc definitely watch the deleted scenes! a bunch of fairly useful info is in them.

i dug it, although as per usual with PTA theres sort of a weird pacing resulting in a kind of lifeless last 30 minutes imo

― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:19 (2 months ago) Permalink

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

i really couldn't get this out of my head either, lol

so, dodd through force of his hucksterism had built this entire structure around himself, but it turns out, it's kind of lame and constricting. if you are going to make yourself a leader of a crowd you end up with duties to that crowd, you end up at their mercy still. quell comes to mean something untameable, untreatable and yeah, fun

for quell, what was the implication? he was this screwed-up dude who fell into this cult's orbit for a while but was too dumb and sick and drunk for it to really take (being fake). turns out he just wanted to get laid.

― goole, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:22 (2 months ago) Permalink

def looked beautiful tho

kind of a minor point but i appreciated PTA's use of the specifics of ethnic america (the filipino farmhands, the scandinavian family) overall the periodicity was terrific (the recording equipment, the cigarettes, the hair, the typefaces)

― goole, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:26 (2 months ago) Permalink

the repeated shot of the ocean churning behind the ship was gorgeous

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:29 (2 months ago) Permalink

jjj did you watch the huston doc that's attached?

― goole, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:30 (2 months ago) Permalink

that ocean shot made me almost gasp in 70mm. that's the main reason I'm afraid to watch it again--that feeling seemed so basic for the movie.

― ryan, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:34 (2 months ago) Permalink

i was blown away and I watched it on boring old dvd, so I think the cinematography def holds up :)

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:37 (2 months ago) Permalink

but I know what you mean

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 16:37 (2 months ago) Permalink

ah crap i forgot about the huston doc and dropped it in the redbox this morning. lame.

this movie in bluray is intense fyi

― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 17:39 (2 months ago) Permalink

I think I'm gonna buy it

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 17:47 (2 months ago) Permalink

I've never gone back to Boogie Nights and not loved everything I first loved about it. Certain moments will come back to me in the middle of the day--"Those are great names!"--and I'll smile.

Talking about restaurants often calls to mind "Good? It's not good. It's probably the best place to eat in Los Angeles. It's excellent."

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 17:48 (2 months ago) Permalink

I drop the YP/MP industry jargon bit now and then, and no one ever gets it.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 17:51 (2 months ago) Permalink

I can imagine a script like Boogie Nights spilling out of him. Then I imagine Magnolia taking more refinement. Then PDL I could imagine being about excising tons of stuff until a movie appears. The last two I imagine took a hell of a lot of discipline.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 20 March 2013 17:52 (2 months ago) Permalink

i still think about the motorcycle escape scene all the time

― ❏❐❑❒ (gr8080), Wednesday, 20 March 2013 22:31 (2 months ago) Permalink

I drop the YP/MP industry jargon bit now and then, and no one ever gets it.

Okay, now you're talking above my head.

― clemenza, Thursday, 21 March 2013 03:47 (2 months ago) Permalink

saw this again finally, and again it pretty much leaves me exactly as it found me--i said upthread it was "desultory" and i still think that holds for me, if something can be desultory and sort of stifling in the rigidity of its conception at the same time. the two-shot in the jail scene is poignant but still borders on banality..

i do like how freddie's slow realization that dodd is fully of shit is underplayed. the look on his face when dodd says the key is "laughter." I think this is the point of the motorcycle scene actually. there may be further nuances that are also underplayed that I have missed. it's implied that freddie knows dodd is full of shit from the beginning and correctly sees through the whole enterprise as a con but at the same time yearns for what he offers.

― ryan, Thursday, 28 March 2013 16:20 (1 month ago) Permalink

Good interview:

http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tt/tt130211paul_thomas_anderson

― munching of foods in my ears etc etc (Eazy), Thursday, 28 March 2013 16:30 (1 month ago) Permalink

also loved when it's revealed that freddie asked "what's something like that worth?" in regard to dodd's manuscript he basically voices the unspoken heart of the matter.

― ryan, Thursday, 28 March 2013 17:56 (1 month ago) Permalink