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

But we don't even know what his totem is

o right, but dream or not it definitely isn't reality

i wish i was paying more attention to the dialogue from the Casper the friendly ghost cartoon playing in that scene.

Yeah I see it more like Taxi Driver, where the film is at least a little skewed from reality by the protagonist's perspective.

"The film takes you out of your comfort zone and drinks your milkshake as it were (to borrow a phrase from There Will Be Blood)."

oh god you dumb goober

i wish i was paying more attention to the dialogue from the Casper the friendly ghost cartoon playing in that scene.

Can't remember the exact dialogue but it was definitely relevant.

it was just casper saying "this is all a dream" over and over again

it is definitely a sign of failure when people start arguing about whether a scene was a dream sequence or not

no, c'mon. that scene was obviously a dream. if it wasn't clearly a dream during the scene, it became clear when they discussed it in the very next scene and call it a dream! if ppl missed that it was bc it was very late in the movie and they were probably exhausted and not paying good attention.

this movie had a lot of female nudity in it

It's America, only male nudity is discouraged.

this movie definitely needed a few shots of Joaquin Phoenix's cock

i went to a 12:00 noon sunday screening and the first walkout was an elderly couple about 4mins in, right after feddie joked about how to get rid of crabs

I just saw this. All I have to say at this time is aero otm re handjob

What were they expecting from the first 4 minutes? xp

freedom vs. servitude (anyone else think of Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody"? yeah, I did

Last scene really made sense to me with Amy Adams ripping Freddie apart while Dodd sat there smiling. As if Amy was simply speaking for Dodd, was indeed "the master".

Dunno why his book was buried in the ground. And Clark was such a hilarious suck-up in that scene where AA (honestly can't recall her character's name now, Peggy? Mrs. Dodd) put everyone up to bad mouthing Freddie.

Like the implication that Freddie rode the motorcycle out of the desert and left them all there.

motorcycle getaway was probably my favorite moment.

re: the book buried in the desert, did anyone else think PTA was deliberately setting up a bait & switch? shotgun, shovel, remote desert, etc.

it is definitely a sign of failure when people start arguing about whether a scene was a dream sequence or not

no way! lots of good Japanese & Thai horror have dream sequences whose whole point is "could be real, could be a dream, what's the diff"

In this case though it doesn't seem at all controversial. The implausibility of Freddie being tracked from across the Atlantic to a specific movie house, the cut to where he wakes up, Freddie explicitly referring to it as a dream, etc.

I like my interpretation better - he drove 2,300 miles on a motorbike back to his hometown

whole different movie right there, with him meeting wacky cut-ups along the way, probably including a monkey

http://exiledonline.com/the-master-are-you-serious/

Those articles are always such a weird form of jujitsu--this movie is pitched to "smart" audiences so the only way to be "really smart" is to designate it as a con to fool the middlebrow rubes.

It's just an exhausting and suspicious way to engage with art--as if some very serious sense of your self was at stake in whether you can "see through it."

It's like this need to interpret films for symbolic "meaning" leads to this kind of defensive maneuver whereby the "meaning" is already hollow, a big con. It's a bad theory of aesthetics and boring film criticism.

i agree

that all seemed p stupid

that we accept that pta seems humourless or unaware of his own silliness seems kind of a big ask

i thought her characterization of pta's filmmaking style was amusingly similar to amateurists

that we accept that pta seems humourless or unaware of his own silliness seems kind of a big ask

― paradiastole, or the currifauel, otherwise called (thomp), Tuesday, September 25, 2012 12:21 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I mean if the last lines of The Master and TWBB weren't both intentionally funny I don't know what he would've been going for

He can crank up the ballyhoo machine, and that’s not nothing in these dull times.

wow

handjobs, orgies, masturbation... you guys are making this movie sound really dirty

Not really any orgies, except in perhaps the less-sexual Gatsbian sense.

it is really dirty!

it opens w/ a masturbation, sand fucking, and a hilarious inkblot test

Yeah it is tho

i think i'm gonna see the new resident evil before i see this. looper should fit in there somewhere too.

watching the master again tonight! whee

two very small things:
- it was unexpected to see jillian bell of workaholics in a very small role in this
- the score has the teenage girl singing "don't sit under the apple tree" to freddie but not PSH singing "a slow boat to china"

1. definitely a dream, oooops
2. the casper cartoon was about pirates on a ship, and casper says something like "a captain never leaves his ship" or etc.

saw this last night and loved it

now im gonna read the thread

important posts

I mean, Freddie even says to Lancaster that he had a dream. Don't know how I forgot that.

now im gonna read the thread

― lag∞n, Wednesday, September 26, 2012 1:47 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

welp i tried

i have trouble with insane protagonists, there's almost always this remoteness where you're observing their craziness instead of feelin their humanity

its really a lot of fun just watching joaquim though. i love the way his face is photographed, all these deep pools of shadow in his crags

― Hungry4Ass, Sunday, September 23, 2012 11:26 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i find lost protagonists v compelling, feel like its an underrepresented key human/cultural quality, also i love cult shit

so, I think this movie is really just 'punch drunk love' with joaquin phoenix in the place of adam sandler and PSH in the place of emily watson.

― barthes simpson, Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:05 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god dude u r better than this

it is definitely a sign of failure when people start arguing about whether a scene was a dream sequence or not

― barthes simpson, Monday, September 24, 2012 2:24 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

shouldve used fog in there or w/e, anyway put me in the obviously a dream camp, although i didnt get it until the next scene when they talked abt how it was a dream

Saw a late show tonight (now it's really late, and I should go to bed). I drifted for most of the second half, so saying anything is a bit unfair, but I think I'd feel the same had I been wide awake--I got nothing out of this. I've written a lot of positive things about PTA on various threads, so I really did want to see something epic that would stay with me for days and weeks afterwards. Maybe there's interesting thematic stuff about post-war America in there, or America in general, that bypassed me because the story and performances and direction fell so short (thought it looked quite drab). Quell was interesting for a while, but by the end I had lost the character--it was just Joaquin Phoenix doing weird stuff as he read lines. I think Hoffman's other three PTA performances are all stronger than what he does here.

lol @ u

if i had seen this movie this is how i wouldve felt

clemenza going with the old dr. morbius "i slept through half this movie but i have opinions about it anyway" tack there, classic

also how do you know if something's going to stay with you for days and weeks afterwards until days and weeks afterwards?