The Master: Review

By Spence Blazak

            Why do people actually join cults? It is a question that always lingers in our minds whenever a cult is featured on the news or when Tom Cruise jumps on a coach while talking about how pain doesn’t exist. There are plenty of answers: the person could be sick, coming off a traumatic hardship, or hurt and in need of a life line. Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master utilizes all of these motivations under a unifying and relatable theme for all people: when life kicks you down, you need an answer, and sometimes anything will do.

The Master follows the story of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), a sex obsessed sailor trying to make his way after the end of World War II. At first finding work as a mall photographer, Freddie’s alcoholism, Hulk-level anger issues, and mental illness soon get him fired and out on the road.

Freddie goes through a few odd jobs before stowing away on the boat of Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). A doctor, writer, boat captain, philosopher, and scientist, Dodd has given himself the nickname “Master.” He has written and begun giving out copies of his book called The Cause, an idea that can be as much or as little like Scientology as your interpretation desires, and brings Freddie on board the crew of this new “religion” he is trying to spark.

With the release of The Master, we have several interesting exterior factors that are pumping up the hype surrounding its release. Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s last movie, 2009’s There Will Be Blood was considered by many esteemed critics to be among the decade’s best films, and The Guardian just ranked him as the best working director in the world. Also at play is the anticipation of Joaquin Phoenix’s return to film after his highly publicized stunt where he claimed that he was retiring from the acting business to grow a beard and become a rapper. To each his own.

Anderson’s camera makes no mistakes and doesn’t rely on any accidents for the beauty of its shots. In the opening few shots of Freddie on the beach, the background is filled with sailors wandering adrift on the beach, the hot off-white sand, and the lucid blues of the ocean. His camera focuses in and out on multiple focal points within the same shot, truly never wasting a single one. He retains his spot as one of the most aesthetically pleasing art house directors in the business.

The acting throughout is phenomenal, in particular by both Phoenix and Hoffman whose names will be thrown around quite a lot this upcoming Oscar season, but the real mastery here is how interesting the characters they portray are. The first moment you see Hoffman’s Master on screen, he is dancing in the background of a shot focused on Phoenix, yet the energy he gives off is so overpowering that it is really the only fitting way to introduce a character so larger than life.

As far as the character of Freddie, he is the key to interpreting the film. The last shot brings everything full circle, and to get to the bottom of what everything means, walking in Freddie’s shoes and throwing him a bone of empathy finishes off what is a powerful film going experience.

The moment that keeps being flashed back to is Freddie on the beach in the Pacific with a sand castle shaped like a woman. For some reason, him with his arm around her keeps being shown again and again, and that is where the film’s heart lies. What does Freddie want? Someone to love him, respect him, and most importantly, tell him what to do. The cult itself is his woman in the sand. When people point out the ideological flaws in the cult’s structure, Freddie doesn’t know how to react and simply beats them up. He doesn’t want to admit to himself how insane the cult is. He just wants a purpose.

The Master isn’t the reach of near cinematic perfection that Paul Thomas Anderson’s previous works were, and its long run time can be a bit trying at points, but all in all, once the Oscar season really gets going, The Master will be near the front of the pack.

If Winter’s Bone is a two-and-a-half star-er, and There Will Be Blood is a four star-er, then The Master gets three-and-a-half stars.