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

yeah I thought maybe the sink scene was about how Laura Dern p clearly wanted to bone him (xp to max)

xpost

there was a cut to the middle, and also it seemed like PSH and the crowd were drunker in the nude part, which suggested to me that it was a veeeeeeery long improvised song that somehow involved drinking and stripping. amy adams would be naked because in public she's supportive of PSH, but of course in private she masterfully jerks him off in the bathroom while laying down the rules. also, in the nude song and dance scene she is clearly not having a good time, unlike all the other dancing fools. (for some reason i was paying a lot of attention to amy adams in that scene so i noticed her displeased facial expressions)

if it was supposed to be a dream i don't think that she'd be noticeably displeased. but who knows.

dmr I scanned that as part of Freddie's happy ending. All the double-talk of the Cause filtered through his trashed brain ended up as just stuff to babble at a pretty girl. Splitting from the Master by showing himself how ridiculous the Cause's cant was.

I can see that a little bit but then the next shot is he ends up exactly where he started, hugging on a sand lady, so it's hard to take it as a happy ending

also wasn't sure what to take away from Freddie trying to do processing on his bar pickup at the end

― dmr, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

felt like he encountered a normal person and they had a good laugh at processing

for some reason i was paying a lot of attention to amy adams in that scene

― Thanks WEBSITE!! (Z S), Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:38 PM (19 seconds ago)

lol zs

xp lagoon otm

also wasn't sure what to take away from Freddie trying to do processing on his bar pickup at the end

― dmr, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 5:35 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

felt like he encountered a normal person and they had a good laugh at processing

― lag∞n, Tuesday, 2 October 2012 21:40 (1 minute ago) Permalink

thought this was the best scene

in the movie (itm)

it was all a dream
I used to read Meridian Magazine

also wasn't sure what to take away from Freddie trying to do processing on his bar pickup at the end

― dmr, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:35 AM (5 minutes ago)

i loved this so much. to me it was him finally finding the path of least resistance, being an animal who only cares about getting drunk and fucking while also comfortably submitting to his master

the final flashback shot of him just being so fucking content being on shore with a sand-woman, no longer adrift

^^

i read it like freddie trying to connect w/ the bar girl. like the processing is the pivotal scene of the first part of the movie -- its freddie forming some kind of connection with PSH -- and here he is just back trying to form that same connection. and maybe to master her the same way psh mastered him

also wasn't sure what to take away from Freddie trying to do processing on his bar pickup at the end

― dmr, Tuesday, October 2, 2012 11:35 AM (5 minutes ago)

The most poignant scene from that part of the movie imo.

it reminded me of River Phoenix's character breaking down in the last twenty minutes of My Own Private Idaho.

I guess I kinda read it the way you did (xpost to gr8080) initially but my wife was like "how is it any different from the way he was at the beginning, it's not like he had trouble picking up girls before, he's still super damaged"

but I dunno it did seem like him and bar girl were havin fun in a way that him and the department store girl were not

you and your wife both otm

you could swap out "path of least resistance" in my post for "a happy medium"

maybe to master her the same way psh mastered him

maybe, but you also read it as an ironic, kind of toothless, repetition of it--one in the service of, like, actual human reciprocity. kinda took that moment as a bit of a utopian fleeting moment of grace type thing.

incidentally Amy Adams is batshit-good here; wish there was more of her.

guys you are overanalyzing the best scene itm

there needs to be a companion film that is 90% Amy Adams and Laura Dern

there probably is tbh

i like the cut from the photo lab to him passed out at the bar

1000 hrs of deleted scenes on the blu-ray xp

the shot after they drank the bomb fuel was incredible, would like to just see that scene again

I didn't come out of it thinking "but what does it MEAN" but I did find myself feeling surprised that these particular aspects of Scientology were what PTA found so compelling as to hang a whole movie on. it didn't feel like enough. I liked it though but felt like those characters could have been in an even better movie I guess.

The Master II: Back in the Habit

Re-mastered

i like when he keeps moving the light closer and closer to the guy's face for the photo

movie would've been better if joaquin started a rival cult and then they have a dance-process battle to the death

I have a question ... who really did the mastering in this movie

Good PT Anderson interview on Fresh Air today, in spite of the occasional ridiculous terry question

I only heard a little part of that. TG: "The men's suits are all blue, but ... I mean, they're *really* blue." PTA: ...

the DVD case for Punch Drunk Love tells you to adjust your TV so the blues are really blue or something like that iirc

pta's one and only music video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc

well that was...something.

yeah its a pretty trippy music video

lol i was referring to the master, shld pay more attention when posting in zing.

Yeah this is about my reaction. It's like... this movie sure exists. It had my attention the whole time and I enjoyed looking at joaquim's face, but I can't find much else to say about it. i can't really even figure out what the movie was missing.

― Hungry4Ass, Sunday, September 23, 2012 1:33 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as usual h4a nails it

everyone's right that the last scene ruled, to me it just seemed like he had finally figured out what all psh's bullshit was good for, to help him achieve his ultimate desire of getting laid.

this movie was so obviously impressive in a couple of important ways that one runs the risk of giving it the benefit of the doubt on a couple of other v. important items. don't really think i can do so until i've thought a lot more about it.

Joaquin interviewed by Elvis Mitchell... way more interesting than just the awards-bashing paragraph.

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/joaquin-phoenix#/_

It's a carrot, but it's the worst-tasting carrot I've ever tasted in my whole life.

I don't know if you gave me The Ring if I could carry it and bring it to Ozamorph, or whatever you call it.

oh man lol

PHOENIX: I know, but that's still what I remember. I loved hip-hop—that's why I did it, because it's something I actually knew about. From, like, '88 to '94 was my time. Black Moon was a great band. Enta da Stage [1993], Nas's Illmatic [1994], and Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang [1993] all came out within a year, and it was mind-blowing because I was so deep into it. I love hip-hop.

Don't call them a band, jeez. what ru my dad

better or worse than Adrien Brody professing his love for Jeru the Damaja

Some thoughts from a second viewing tonight:

Quill and Dodd's doubling of each other really stuck out to me. (Of course it should've done so the first time but I'm a bit thick.)

Also more obvious this time was that the language of the Cause, Dodd's language and apparatus, basically amounts to word salad. Dodd is an ill man, basically incapable of completing a line of thought. F. ex., his wedding speech about the dragon gets a big laugh, but it's a joke with no punchline and no kind of sense.

Peggy Dodd is the goal-directed, aggressive driver of the Cause, and Lancaster's fantasies her vehicle—not just by the end of the film, but from the beginning. I don't think that this is somehow the "point" of the film (or its title). But without Peggy, Dodd wouldn't be a Master, and that reinforces the co-evolving/doubled Dodd/Quill relationship.

Just saw this on a rainy afternoon (my work to do was all waiting for returned calls/emails, so took a few hours off).

Naked party: figured we were jist seeing the party through his primal eyes, the visual equivalent of a Malick voice-over. That PSH was clothed was one of the indications that Dodd was offering an alternative to just seeing everyone a naked.

Ending: Freddie rejects a system that aims to get him beyond "animal" state, goes back to animal state with a few new tools to reach intimacy.