The Master

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:12 pm

Fucking mesmerizing. Do not believe any negative reviews. Do believe all positive reviews.

Look, you get one of these movies every five years. Savor it. Don't just call me fanboy. Savor this shit.

No Best Picture award for this one. Probably Best Actor for Joaquin. Doubtful Best Director.

Deserves all three. You're living in the next Kubrick era, except even better.

SAVOR IT.

(You will not savor it.)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Sep 28, 2012 4:56 pm

Not one of you jackasses saw it, did you.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 12:41 pm

No. We all have "our things" going on. PTA movies are your thing. They are incomprehensible to most movie-goers.

More, the movie going experience is UTTER SHIT. That means that it takes a big movie for me to subject myself to that. I collected comic books throughout my youth, teen years and young adulthood, and I missed all the superhero movies and the Avengers. And Joss Whedon did Avengers. I like that guy! But that ain't good enough to get me to sit in a dark theater with a hundred lit phones.

I will be going to see Looper, but that is because it is a JGD and Rian Johnson production, and after they did Brick I want them to have my money. Also, I will be going to Looper over The Master because it has a higher fan rating on IMDB.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 3:57 pm

A lot of people go to movies that aren't their "thing", they just go to movies.

DICK. Wait are you back?

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:17 pm

No. I am not back.

I told you I'd see the Master because you liked it so much. I will. I really hope the thing is in theaters for a month though.

I don't think I am gonna be able to go see Looper for a week unless I do it Sunday night. Can anything be less convenient than movies? (Well, yes, TV. Well yes, Broadway shows.) Besides those. Why am I going to a place to see new movies? WHY, BENJARMIN?

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 6:00 am

I don't know. I'd never do it, except for extremely special occasions, those being:

1. New PTA movie.
2. New David Fincher movie (unless he sticks with this Dragon Tattoo crap).
3. Christmas, where my wife demands that a movie be seen. (This year's selection: Les Miserables! I added the exclamation mark. I think it would be a better title that way.)

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 7:15 pm

I've been on the road for a full week with another full week to go. If The Master is still in theaters when I make it back home, I'll definitely go see it there.

The Happiness Engine · Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:45 pm

Remember Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane opening, the long slow series of dissolves of fences and barriers as you move slowly, slowly, toward the Gothic house on the hill where Kane lies dying, and the sign that says “NO TRESPASSING”? What a perfect coy enticement! No, no, the film seems to say , I won’t let you look, I won’t let you interpret, though I know you can’t help yourselves, you brilliant cinema-lovers, you serious devotees of the arts, bless you but you must stop, it’s hopeless even for you to understand the life of any given human being, much less the life of the quintessential American, Orson Welles, I mean William Randolph Hearst, I mean Charles Foster Kane!

Ya gotta credit the guy, it’s the greatest flimflammiest come-on in the history of cinema, absolute catnip for the critics!

So this was the Orson Welles formula, and PTA is like the offspring of Orson Welles and some carny woman Welles picked up while doing his tacky magic show (Welles’ favorite hobby).

PTA seems to realize this, and is always doing films about the Big Con, featuring grandiose hucksters in the Welles mode. It’s his cleverest move as a filmmaker, deflecting all criticism, and it’s right out of the Welles playbook. He’s not a con artist himself, see—he’s doing serious studies of the American dependence on con artists, our always-burning hope that the next big-talking grifter who comes along will turn out to be the real deal and give us our free pass to Elysium.

PTA even pulled the Wellesian stunt of leaking to the press that he was taking on L.Ron Hubbard and the origins of Scientology, only he couldn’t get too explicit because he’d get sued or assassinated or something, so that’s how come the movie’s not really about L. Ron Hubbard. Only it kinda is, and for all you insiders, the film is full of amazing clues! This generates reams of publicity. Welles did exactly the same thing with newspaper mogul and all-around prick William Randolph Hearst, and it’s never stopped paying dividends for that old warhorse Citizen Kane, which always is and always will be at or near the top of any official Best Films list.

Predictions:

ICJ will be bored and hate it.
Flack will be a bit confused, but think it represents "Art".
I will not watch this movie.

Jesus · Post by **Jesus** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 8:01 pm

I haven't seen this yet. What the fuck.

Mind you, I didn't see Dragon Tattoo either until Blu-ray.

What has become of me?

I used to matter.

I expect it will be brilliant.

I haven't seen Looper yet, either, but then I haven't seen Looper yet.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 10:57 am

Golden Globe nominations are out!

Did PTA get nominated for best screenplay?

[youtube][/youtube]

Did PTA get nominated for best director?

[youtube][/youtube]

Did The Master get nominated for best drama?

[youtube][/youtube]

Am I watching the goddamn Golden Globes this year?

[youtube][/youtube]

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 5:40 pm

I nominated it in the "confusing yet artistic" category.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 11:25 am

Flack wrote:I nominated it in the "confusing yet artistic" category.

I don't get the "confusing" part. What-- how is that movie confusing?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:45 pm

The Happiness Engine wrote:Predictions:

ICJ will be bored and hate it.
Flack will be a bit confused, but think it represents "Art".
I will not watch this movie.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 5:56 pm

The Master has been out on DVDs/Blu-Rays/etc for over a year now, and I've only just seen it again for the second time.

It is the hardest PTA movie to like (other than Punch-Drunk Love, I guess, which for some reason some people dislike, which is just so beyond my understanding that I'll save it for a separate thread.) It is his most inscrutable work. The relationship between The Master and Freddie Quell is a puzzle within an enigma, and the movie itself, unlike PTA's previous "There Will Be Blood", is offering no closure for this dysfunctional duo. Where "TWBB" had a rousing, bowling-pin-wielding finale to settle whatever differences the primary combatants may have had, The Master offers instead a quiet acapella rendition of "Slow Boat to China" which, your guess is as good as mine what that's all about.

It is still all-consumably watchable. The 70mm filming even translates well to home-video formats. Every frame is a portrait. It feels at times primarily like a love letter to film itself.

And yet, as memorable as the scenes are, as powerful and perfect as the performances are, as gorgeous the imagery, there seems to be nothing to grab onto.

I wonder if in some perverse way that makes The Master PTA's best film. I'll never admit it, because Magnolia is still the greatest movie I've ever seen.

But just as Freddie and The Master are intrigued, drawn to, and mystified by each other, so is the relationship between this viewer and the film.

Perhaps nothing but a trip with it on a slow boat to China will do.

lethargic · Post by **lethargic** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:26 pm

A Paul Thomas Anderson thread and not one mention of Boogie Nights? I spit on my monitor.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 6:36 pm

You're new here. I'm the biggest PTA fan in the universe. Let us discuss Boogie Nights. I am ready to do this. I'm sure I already have, but you seem like a good man with quality opinions, so I am ready to discuss PTA.

I've been ready for this my whole life.

lethargic · Post by **lethargic** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 1:02 am

Did you see Heather Graham's TITS??

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:46 am

lethargic wrote:Did you see Heather Graham's TITS??

Yes. Yes I did.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jan 26, 2014 10:42 pm

I was able to watch the first 45 minutes tonight. I am sorry. My situation in life has me up at 6 AM each day. I must get sleep. I crave sleep.

It is very, very good, these first 45 minutes. Don't blink! (I will blink a long blink, the blink where it is sleep.)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sun Feb 02, 2014 3:07 pm

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:(I will blink a long blink, the blink where it is sleep.)

And PSH just blinked the longest blink of all.