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

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?

this thread has all the worst ilx critical tics on display, which is really too bad because the master is quite an unusual movie

Oh god, PSH in Punch Drunk Love is maybe the worst performance of all time.

shocked no one has paraphrased kael yet

Oh god, PSH in Punch Drunk Love is maybe the worst performance of all time.

not as bad as PSH as the one with Ethan Hawke yelling a lot.

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

lag∞n can we publish a whole zine of reviews taking this as our starting point

would collect

Critiques #1 (32 pp., center-staple, NC & parts unknown): an interesting collection of thoughtful essays on film. Editors adhere to strict policy of texting friends from their seats until they are removed from the theater, usually about halfway through the movie. In the event of home viewing, films screen in the next room while editors work on badass ramen recipes in the kitchen. $3.00

this thread has all the worst ilx critical tics on display, which is really too bad because the master is quite an unusual movie

code for "i disagree with what majority of posters are saying", a rationalization of which is a massive ilx tic, go fig

good try, but it is you granny dainger who have displayed an ilx tic

basically i want everyone who doesn't like this movie to list movies they did like this year so i can make fun of them

we all do.
you loved the movie. great! i wish i did. but rather than explain what made you love it or engage with any of the criticism, you paint all those who didn't love it as having diseased thought processes. it's just a dick move.

Pitch Perfect was better than this movie.

they do have a diseased thought process tho, its fair point that i havent explained my enthusiasm for the movie, ill get to that, i just wanted to complain abt the thread a lil first as i had to suffer through the dispiriting experience of reading it

Ditto (xxxpost). People see the film, they post their thoughts. To say I didn't get anything out of it is not meant as an attack on anyone who loved it. As far as "i slept through half this movie but i have opinions about it anyway," I could have simply not mentioned that I drifted through the second half--it's not like you'd know--but instead, I acknowledged it and also that anything I had to say was therefore slightly unfair. ("Slightly" because if the first half-hour had made more of an impact on me, I don't think the drifting would have been a problem.) Anyway, I will very likely see it a second time when it hits the reps.

pig fuck

right. anyone who doesn't have the same reaction has diseased thinking, your reaction is the valid one cause you're pure of mind, unsullied by ilx hivemind. yay you.

I actually really disliked "pig fuck" - it was a clumsy showing-of-the-hand in my opinion, kind of a "hey, I bet a lot of the people watching this will have heard this term elsewhere" thing. like if somebody here made a movie and at some point a character passed a poster that said BAN L0U1S JAGG3R.

lag∞n otm

its pretty standard for ilx film threads to be awful, this one is no different. no need 2 take it personal

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

I don't know. I said that's what I was hoping. It's another way of saying I was hoping I'd love it. Films I love say with me for days and weeks afterwards.

this thread has all the worst ilx critical tics on display, which is really too bad because the master is quite an unusual movie

How do you even address something like that? a) "Unusualness" is a neutral term. There are great unusual films and awful unusual films. b) You assert The Master's unusualness as a statement of fact, rather than opinion.

there are aspects of this film that seem to be executed with such broad Melvillean (Herman, that is) strokes in terms of the symbolism and central conflict (which may turn a lot of people off), but then that's all undercut but these little grace notes of weirdness.

that being said, after my one viewing i am still left wishing there was a little more to PSH's character, but there may be nuances i missed.

Reviewer at nyrb taking the naked ladies scene literally is odd. Anybody else see it that way?

I had mixed feelings about this when I left but it's definitely lingered enough that I'd like to see it again.