Louis CK reacts to Paul Thomas Anderson's 2012 film The Master. Source: Joe & Raanan Talk Movies Apple podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast... Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/24fjQRv...
TWBB has a timeless quality to it. A masterwork of classical Hollywood cinema but with an edgy, postmodern spin. But lately I’ve been deeply fascinated with The Master having rewatched it a few times. It’s a beautiful portrait of post WWII America. But I also think it’s a thoughtful exploration of hopeless souls and their vulnerability to profound and radical influence. It seems unexpectedly relevant in today’s post truth world.
Joaquin Phoenix gives my all time favorite performance in The Master. The amount of raw emotion he puts into it is phenomenal and completely mesmerizing to me. No other actor could’ve given the type of performance he gave. In a film filled with outstanding performances Joaquin Phoenix managed to outshine everyone. Unforgettable.
My favorite movie of all time. The scene at the end when Hoffman's character is singing to Phoenix's really puts a lump in my throat and takes complete hold of me. It's the best artistic work I've come across pertaining to the listlessness and detachment felt within modern life, and the struggle for meaning and love. Like Louie, I frequently ponder images, dialogue and music from the movie in my head and am likewise waiting decent lengths between rewatches so as to not make it too familiar. "If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world." -Lancaster Dodd to Freddie Quell.
Yeah. The last line by Dodd gorgeously encapsulates the inner conflict. We are all bound to a master of some kind whether it be faith, profession, or for most people, money.
This film is one of those rare burst of genius insanity that some exceptional artists posses. You can not invent things like The Master. Something special must've been going on during the writing of the script. I have to say, it's hilarious to me that once PTA got off coke and started having kids, his films became even more insane😂 As crazy as stuff like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and PDL is, it's no match to the batshit insane levels of TWB, Phantom Thread and especially The Master.
What I love about it is that neither character can get what they want. Hoffman wants to understand and control Joaquin. He wants to reign in the chaos of someone who is so far off the edge. Joaquin wants meaning. He wants to not be different and to feel whole. But it's impossible. Especially when trying to find that meaning and belonging in a religion that is a complete farce (not that other religions would be much better).
I love these videos and snippets of mostly people that I think are genius at what they do. To share their appreciation to others works, sometimes obscure and not commercial.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death is possibly the greatest loss to cinema in my lifetime. I'd kill 100 other actors to get the past 10 years of PSH performances we missed.
Without being an "allegory" in any direct way this movie is of course based on the origins of Dianetics and Scientology. It uses selected elements of the narrative of how L. Ron Hubbard, a deeply troubled sociopath, was able to draw other people lost and damaged by the trauma of the war into a transference relationship to him and the cult he created, based on a shared sense of alienation from post war society. These elements are then woven into a fiercely intense character study of the two main characters of the movie, who are both absolutely brilliantly acted. It's the story of a man's trauma, and his false search for escape first through alcoholic addiction, and then through cultic belief in the outside authority of the "Master," and then freedom and healing when he escapes from the cult at the end of the movie and finally is able to assume self-responsibility for his own life.
As Freddie is leaving, Dodd tells him he had better learn to serve some master, because we all have to. He thinks Freddie is going to slip back into a nihilistic life, which seems credible. Then in the final scene, in the throes of intimacy, Freddy gives that woman the exact paternalistic compliment that Dodd once paid him, which is very off-putting and somehow telling; maybe Freddie didn't really escape. I think you are pretty on point, but to me Freddie's fate is more ambiguous. I wonder what you think.
My interpretation was that the ending was intentionally ambiguous. Perhaps Freddie is somewhat different, perhaps he is the same. But the lesson I felt was that some people are fundamentally resistant to authority, to change, and groupthink. Freddie never really got anything out of the 'healing' that he attempted with the cult. Though he clearly bonded with Dodd profoundly, it seemed that they met in the middle - it was as much that Dodd was excited by Freddie's wildness and untamableness.
Philip Seymour Hoffman's best performance and that is saying something. I'm so glad he and Joaquin were in a film together before Hoffman's tragic death. What a gift of cinema.
I haven’t seen anybody else mention this, but another amazing part of the film is the soundtrack. anytime there are actual they have so much meaning and reveal underlying themes but help tell the story in another way too. i can’t do an explanation justice here but I know i watched a couple good youtube videos about it
I think the motorcycle scene is a scene of escaping and freedom. Because the scene before when Freddy was walking left to right over and over in the room it with his eyes closed, he is trapped inside that room, being hypnotized by Lancaster. Once he is out in the open he is finally free to go away and not comeback like he did in that room.
I had a very very intense and not exactly healthy relationship with this movie when I was younger. It was coming out five years after There Will Be Blood, one of the most acclaimed films ever, and I bet you PTA was feeling the pressure to make another "IMPORTANT" movie about America and the human condition. I was super hyped by the idea of Phoenix and Hoffman acting together and I was counting the days to when it came out, watching the trailers that Anderson cut together himself over and over again, trying to decipher it. Then it came out in the first few weeks of my freshman year of college and...nobody really cared. Oh, the critics liked it and film geeks on the Internet really dug it but nobody around me really did except for like one or two guys. I went to see it in the theaters like four times and it didn't exactly cause the stir that There Will Be Blood did. So I got really indignant and almost protective of it, like, "Well screw all those idiots, they don't know what art is! I'm gonna love this movie the way it DESERVES to be loved! I'm gonna love this movie FOR everybody else!" Not very healthy thinking and boy did it show. I watched it like every other day on DVD, didn't make friends, could feel myself becoming like Freddie and Dodd in different ways. Listened to Jonny Greenwood's score over and over again, it was becoming part of my DNA in some ways. I'm not like that anymore and haven't been in a long time, but my relationship to this movie has changed to a more healthy and objective. The acting and cinematography are still great obviously, but it feels directionless and slow at times. Aside from Amy Adams, none of the supporting people in The Cause feel very distinct or interesting, I feel like if it delved into The Cause and the other people in it more, maybe it would be better. But still, I appreciate very much trying to be a movie for grown ups in an environment where they feels rarer and rarer every day.
Thank you for cutting out Joe and the other dummy next to him. I tried to watch the original recordings for Kubrick and they are so stupid I had to stop. Genuinely apprecaite you making these edits. Louie is actually interesting and worth listening to. I assumed Louie was playing off of good commentary but, having tried to listen to the one podcast, he’s on his own against literal midwits. Thank you for your service o7.
What a wonderful take. I agree that ultimately there's no deeper allegory or metaphor, though that always exists in any media. It really is just a chaotic journey of misappropriated power and pure emotion by a great, unforgettable cast.
@jon8004 I agree with much of what you wrote. Having left a cult myself as a young man, I sympathized with Freddie, but think he abandons the Cause because he eventually realizes that there are no solutions to whatever plagues him -- only tradeoffs.
This movie is about despair in my opinion. When you finally realize that everything you’ve ever been told is utter bullshit and that there is nothing to hope for. Life doesn’t make any sense and no one is coming to rescue you. That’s what I think this movie is about.
So wait, is Louis CK the best movie critic of the 21st century? I’m an Ebert and Kael guy but have not heard anyone with this much insight in the past 20 years.
Idea for The Master came a lot about from L. Ron Hubbart and Scientology and all around cults. A lot about the idea is also how some cults have been like actual things of people trying to do something differend regarding to mental health and it turning into a cult (with it being the leaders initial intention or not). The movie displays it super well how you can become indoctrinated to a cult without even knowing you have. Takes kinda a perfect example of someone whose circumstances are just in the right place. Amy Adams character is another one who displays in a differend sense a person who isn't neccesarily as easy to see being lost but just get's so infactuated by the idea and the person behind it. Then ofc Philip Seymour Hoffman is those pretty perfect actors to come off sophisticated and charismatic intellectual who is kinda wacky at the same time to be the perfect head for the "movement"
It's not perfect and one of the most confounding movies I've ever seen, but one that I love and with outstanding acting. Can't believe PTA just wrote that screenplay from his mind as Louis said. Probably seen it at least 5 times and shown to various friends in my life because I need someone to share in my mystification haha
I actually disagree that there is no additional allegorical meaning to the film. On my last viewing I realized that it works really well as an exploration of the Freudian model of the mind. Freddie Quell represents the id or animalistic mind, Peggy Dodd represents the super ego or moral conscience and Lancaster Dodd represents the ego or thinking mind which is trying to mediate between the desires of the other two. If you watch the film with this in mind you will see countless fascinating interactions between these parts. It also informs the way certain scenes were shot, as well as the way the actors are posed and blocked. I also think it’s why even though the characters are bizarre, we still see ourselves in aspects of them. Because they are all three contained in each of us
In stories there are characters called, 'Magicians.' Another term would be a wizard. They so exemplify a quality or capacity that they seem magical to everyone around them. In, 'The Master,' both characters are magicians, but of very different types. Hoffman's character is a master manipulator of people. Phoenix's character is a master manipulator of things. Phoenix turns gasoline into potions. He turns sand into a woman. He captures images into photos, but he can't manipulate, have a relationship or navigate any other person. Hoffman's character can't actually DO anything other than manipulate people. Both can see the genius in the other and both respect that genius. They understand it is a lonely and terrible thing to be what they are and at the same time we live in a world where someone always has to be The Master.
The movie was based on his longtime coke dealer. They were very close, but his wife made him end the relationship. You can see the coke dealer in pretty much every old photo. People assumed he was part of making the film. Which he was I guess. But as a former addict I understand that relationship. Extremely complicated one.
After watching this movie, I felt that it was one of the best movies ever made, and one of the most impactful and meaningful to me. I loved it. I felt Phoenix and Hoffman both deserved an Oscar for their performances. It is my favorite movie for both of those actors, and from Paul Thomas Anderson. I always thought Louis CK was funny, but he does irritate me in many ways, comes across as a mid-wit, has super gross politics, etc. But he and I see eye to eye on this movie.
This is such a strange movie, but it gets better with time, or once you see it from a new angle. Louis almost touched on a point, but it set off a lightbulb in my head. What if you had this "fucked up guy" thrown in a blender with the worst possible way to get better.. and it worked? This is not the traditional way to treat someone with Freddie's issues, yet, somehow he winds up on the road to recovery, and he made a true friend along the way. He can never be part of Dodd's life, yet the effect was real. Freddie was stuck in a loop, but gets to move on.
(AP) VENICE - Director Paul Thomas Anderson said it's no secret that the central character in "The Master" was inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
No, PTA didn't "just write The Master out of some kind of fever". He very explicitly lifted much of the movie from John Huston's documentary 'Let There Be Light', which is about WW2 vets with PTSD trying to integrate back into society. It's also clearly inspired by Dianetics and the beginnings of Scientology. I think part of the reason the film feels so authentic and is executed with "extreme conscientious discipline" is because it is rooted in real life history. PTA is a genius filmmaker and the pairing of Freddie (a character who is utterly lost and without direction) with Lancastor (someone claiming to have deep metaphysical answers to life's mysteries) is a wonderful pairing, but PTA didn't just pull it out of a dream. It's a semibiographical fantasy.
I think what Louie said is still true though. It does feel like it came from some fever dream or trancelike state. Even with the real-world inspirations, The Master is just such a hauntingly bizarre and way-the-fuck-outta-left-field, dreamlike trip into human nature. This is FAR from being some typical biopic or historical period piece lol it’s like radically strange and difficult, almost even demented at times (I say this all as praise, I love the movie). I guess my point is, it still totally feels like PTA must have been pulling stuff from DEEP in his subconscious to make The Master happen, and that comes across big time in the film.
[I gather myself….would you care for some informal processing] The movie is titled “The Master” in earnest- esp. being executed after TWBB and Day-Lewis’ dynamo tour-de-force [turn them blue]…. How do you begin one-ing up that…. Well, If you’re PTA, you do this film, which is somehow simultaneously both under and over TWBB. [sure…. What do I have to do?] Naturally, TWBB will be in assured contention, but this film is THE MASTER-piece. “Mawwage (sic) prior to the cause… was awwwful.” Perhaps and so since it is an entirely original piece; not based on another work (as U. Sinclair penned “Oil!”)- we have PTA intentionally diving more forward and much deeper….. imagine this- m’kay… a DRAGON…. Tarantino one upping Pulp Fiction after PF… it doesn’t exist and is inconceivable in our universe, but what do I have… a Lasso… and I wring it around its neck and I WRESTLE…: it stays on command. The exact formula for this film will far exceed Kubrick’s equations in many years’ time. Unintelligible as that seems…. Time and relativity are now in working towards its absolute adopted general consensus. De Facto- in TWBB we had the scintillating, singular performance (Dani, artfully arriving at under in every co-inhabited scene), in THIS piece we have an unprecedented DIAD written for…. Apocalypse Now, Godfather, Streetcar eat your fucking hearts out….. the master works most efficiently off TWO performances bestowed upon us and carried on about this film, as will be revealed beyond the present feeble comprehension even now..:. Mark. These. Words. “And now we’re going to teach it to roll over and play dead”….. The only way you’re PTA and subvert yourself at this point arrives at an obvious conjunction….. adapt Pynchon. Do you even know what that suggests………:.?
At the very end, when they are both sitting there and PSH tells JP that if he sees him in another life they will be sworn enemies and he will show JP "no mercy" and JP just bursts out laughing.. what is he laughing at? Is he not just realizing how batshit and full of shit PSH is at that point? Or is it something else?
This bums me out, I really liked this channel, now ive got to click the "do not recommend" because they want to post videos made by sexual predators. Neat.
The Master is brilliant not because it's a great film, but because everyone talks about it as if it's a great film. The discourse around The Master mimics the film's subject matter in that everyone tries to convince themselves (and each other) that it's a great film when, in fact, it's a perfectly average film with a few really good (and beautifully filmed) scenes. However, there's no movie here, just like the subject matter suggests. I swear PTA made this film in an effort to pull off the same thing L. Ron Hubbard did in convincing people that he had some amazing insight when, in fact, it was all a sham. It's like he knew he couldn't follow up There Will Be Blood with an equally great film, so he made an average film and tricked people into thinking it was a great film by making the film about the very thing he was trying to convince audiences of. But if you think the film is brilliant it's because you're desperately trying to convince yourself it's brilliant only because everyone else says it's brilliant and you're not willing to tell the truth about the film for fear everyone will call you a fool and kick you out of the film nerd (scientology-esque) club. And that's the film's only real genius - it's an average film nobody wants to admit isn't actually that great but now all these years later people have convinced themselves the film really is some masterpiece. But it's not. You've been tricked and lied to. The Master is not a great film, but what PTA did to fool critics and film nerds into thinking it was a great film was genius level. The Master is post-meta brilliant, but only in the context of the discourse surrounding it. I mean, listen to what Louis CK is actually saying in this clip: he says it's a mess, it's beautiful, it's insane, it's slick ... he's saying what is always said about the film in that nobody knows what to make of it and so because nobody knows what to make of it that it must be brilliant and we're just not quite smart enough to figure it out. And it's not like Louis CK is some average film viewer - the guy knows his cinema, but he's fallen into the same trap as everyone else in thinking it's brilliant solely because he doesn't know what to make of it and can't actually explain what the film is really about, other than "it's a mess".
Surely with everyone else in the room saying how great it is, you stand alone, the only person out of many to that knows how not-special it is. You’re the only one who gets it.
Lol damn man, I’m sorry it was over your head or whatever, but speak for yourself. The Master is maybe PTA’s greatest cinematic achievement, and that’s saying a lot for an artist who has done pretty much consistently amazing work.
I know most people think of There Will Be Blood as PTA taking a stab at making the "Great American Movie" but for my money this is it
TWBB is the perfect movie on capitalism, released at the perfect time.
@@TucoRope2TightEspecially american capitalism.
TWBB is the perfect movie
Truly. A film that genuinely feels like a great American novel.
TWBB has a timeless quality to it. A masterwork of classical Hollywood cinema but with an edgy, postmodern spin. But lately I’ve been deeply fascinated with The Master having rewatched it a few times. It’s a beautiful portrait of post WWII America. But I also think it’s a thoughtful exploration of hopeless souls and their vulnerability to profound and radical influence. It seems unexpectedly relevant in today’s post truth world.
Jeez I would listen to this guy talk about movies all day
Louis CK has the best take on ALL of the best films. He should have his own review (film break down) show.
Joaquin Phoenix gives my all time favorite performance in The Master. The amount of raw emotion he puts into it is phenomenal and completely mesmerizing to me. No other actor could’ve given the type of performance he gave. In a film filled with outstanding performances Joaquin Phoenix managed to outshine everyone. Unforgettable.
I could maybe see a young Klaus Kinski in a German language version of this.
I think Joaquin Phoenix got Joker because of this performance
It's half the movie if it's anyone else in that role.
@@juniorjames7076 That nutcase was a genius on screen.
PSH was equally good
My favorite movie of all time. The scene at the end when Hoffman's character is singing to Phoenix's really puts a lump in my throat and takes complete hold of me. It's the best artistic work I've come across pertaining to the listlessness and detachment felt within modern life, and the struggle for meaning and love. Like Louie, I frequently ponder images, dialogue and music from the movie in my head and am likewise waiting decent lengths between rewatches so as to not make it too familiar.
"If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world." -Lancaster Dodd to Freddie Quell.
It is stunningly beautiful (and funny). Saw it on a 70mm print in London the other day. SO Good.
Yeah. The last line by Dodd gorgeously encapsulates the inner conflict. We are all bound to a master of some kind whether it be faith, profession, or for most people, money.
I disagree with Louis that the movie doesn't have a point. To me it's clearly about an unstable man trying to hard so find a family.
Honestly my favourite PTA film, such beautifully written characters and exceptional filmmaking. What's not to love for a cinephile?
This film is one of those rare burst of genius insanity that some exceptional artists posses. You can not invent things like The Master. Something special must've been going on during the writing of the script.
I have to say, it's hilarious to me that once PTA got off coke and started having kids, his films became even more insane😂 As crazy as stuff like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and PDL is, it's no match to the batshit insane levels of TWB, Phantom Thread and especially The Master.
Sorry folks, this was Joaquin Phoenix's best performance. He killed this.
Easily. No one could ever capture those mannerisms like him.
Ive seen this movie only twice and I think about it constantly. Very rare for films that stay with you so long with only 1 or 2 viewings
What I love about it is that neither character can get what they want. Hoffman wants to understand and control Joaquin. He wants to reign in the chaos of someone who is so far off the edge. Joaquin wants meaning. He wants to not be different and to feel whole. But it's impossible. Especially when trying to find that meaning and belonging in a religion that is a complete farce (not that other religions would be much better).
An American gem. Film as art. Love it.
I love how Louis is such a great cinephile. I'm with him.
I love these videos and snippets of mostly people that I think are genius at what they do. To share their appreciation to others works, sometimes obscure and not commercial.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman's untimely death is possibly the greatest loss to cinema in my lifetime. I'd kill 100 other actors to get the past 10 years of PSH performances we missed.
The Master is a damn masterpiece.
Without being an "allegory" in any direct way this movie is of course based on the origins of Dianetics and Scientology. It uses selected elements of the narrative of how L. Ron Hubbard, a deeply troubled sociopath, was able to draw other people lost and damaged by the trauma of the war into a transference relationship to him and the cult he created, based on a shared sense of alienation from post war society. These elements are then woven into a fiercely intense character study of the two main characters of the movie, who are both absolutely brilliantly acted. It's the story of a man's trauma, and his false search for escape first through alcoholic addiction, and then through cultic belief in the outside authority of the "Master," and then freedom and healing when he escapes from the cult at the end of the movie and finally is able to assume self-responsibility for his own life.
As Freddie is leaving, Dodd tells him he had better learn to serve some master, because we all have to. He thinks Freddie is going to slip back into a nihilistic life, which seems credible. Then in the final scene, in the throes of intimacy, Freddy gives that woman the exact paternalistic compliment that Dodd once paid him, which is very off-putting and somehow telling; maybe Freddie didn't really escape. I think you are pretty on point, but to me Freddie's fate is more ambiguous. I wonder what you think.
My interpretation was that the ending was intentionally ambiguous. Perhaps Freddie is somewhat different, perhaps he is the same. But the lesson I felt was that some people are fundamentally resistant to authority, to change, and groupthink. Freddie never really got anything out of the 'healing' that he attempted with the cult. Though he clearly bonded with Dodd profoundly, it seemed that they met in the middle - it was as much that Dodd was excited by Freddie's wildness and untamableness.
what do you mean when you say "a false search"?
I love Louie's analysis here, but it's clearly very allegorical.
almost like he doesn't understand the picture at all@@davidjohnhartley
I’d listen to Louis on movies or pop art all day he’s very insightful
One of my all time favorites, doesn’t get the love that other PTA movies get
Philip Seymour Hoffman's best performance and that is saying something. I'm so glad he and Joaquin were in a film together before Hoffman's tragic death. What a gift of cinema.
I got to work as one of the sailors on the beach in the very beginning of the film! Love these commentaries
I'm more of a CK fan now because of this, and he was already my #1 stand-up.
I haven’t seen anybody else mention this, but another amazing part of the film is the soundtrack. anytime there are actual they have so much meaning and reveal underlying themes but help tell the story in another way too.
i can’t do an explanation justice here but I know i watched a couple good youtube videos about it
I love this channel
I think the motorcycle scene is a scene of escaping and freedom. Because the scene before when Freddy was walking left to right over and over in the room it with his eyes closed, he is trapped inside that room, being hypnotized by Lancaster. Once he is out in the open he is finally free to go away and not comeback like he did in that room.
I would love to see a louis ck review show where he reviews movies and possibly even has directors/actors on the show
The Master was prime PTA, Joaquin, and PSH all in one 🔥
I had a very very intense and not exactly healthy relationship with this movie when I was younger. It was coming out five years after There Will Be Blood, one of the most acclaimed films ever, and I bet you PTA was feeling the pressure to make another "IMPORTANT" movie about America and the human condition. I was super hyped by the idea of Phoenix and Hoffman acting together and I was counting the days to when it came out, watching the trailers that Anderson cut together himself over and over again, trying to decipher it. Then it came out in the first few weeks of my freshman year of college and...nobody really cared. Oh, the critics liked it and film geeks on the Internet really dug it but nobody around me really did except for like one or two guys. I went to see it in the theaters like four times and it didn't exactly cause the stir that There Will Be Blood did. So I got really indignant and almost protective of it, like, "Well screw all those idiots, they don't know what art is! I'm gonna love this movie the way it DESERVES to be loved! I'm gonna love this movie FOR everybody else!" Not very healthy thinking and boy did it show. I watched it like every other day on DVD, didn't make friends, could feel myself becoming like Freddie and Dodd in different ways. Listened to Jonny Greenwood's score over and over again, it was becoming part of my DNA in some ways. I'm not like that anymore and haven't been in a long time, but my relationship to this movie has changed to a more healthy and objective. The acting and cinematography are still great obviously, but it feels directionless and slow at times. Aside from Amy Adams, none of the supporting people in The Cause feel very distinct or interesting, I feel like if it delved into The Cause and the other people in it more, maybe it would be better. But still, I appreciate very much trying to be a movie for grown ups in an environment where they feels rarer and rarer every day.
Did PTA really cut the trailers for this himself, do you have a source for this? Do you know if he did it for any of his other films?
@@downinthehole Pretty sure I read multiple places that he did. I know he did it for there will be blood.
The film isn't anamorphic, it was actually PTA's first spherical lensed film since Hard Eight.
Thank you for cutting out Joe and the other dummy next to him. I tried to watch the original recordings for Kubrick and they are so stupid I had to stop. Genuinely apprecaite you making these edits. Louie is actually interesting and worth listening to. I assumed Louie was playing off of good commentary but, having tried to listen to the one podcast, he’s on his own against literal midwits. Thank you for your service o7.
What a masterpiece by PTA.
Both actors deserved Oscars
What a wonderful take. I agree that ultimately there's no deeper allegory or metaphor, though that always exists in any media. It really is just a chaotic journey of misappropriated power and pure emotion by a great, unforgettable cast.
@jon8004 I agree with much of what you wrote. Having left a cult myself as a young man, I sympathized with Freddie, but think he abandons the Cause because he eventually realizes that there are no solutions to whatever plagues him -- only tradeoffs.
This is my favorite film of all time.
The Master is the greatest film I have ever seen.
The master is a masterpiece
That is the best scene when Freddy just bolts with the Motorcycle…🗣️FREDDDIE!!
The Master is an underrated masterpiece.
Great movie
This movie is about despair in my opinion. When you finally realize that everything you’ve ever been told is utter bullshit and that there is nothing to hope for. Life doesn’t make any sense and no one is coming to rescue you. That’s what I think this movie is about.
PTA is a master. My favorite film maker.
So wait, is Louis CK the best movie critic of the 21st century? I’m an Ebert and Kael guy but have not heard anyone with this much insight in the past 20 years.
so far this is joaquin’s best performance in my opinion…even above joker
I watched “The Master” in preparation for “Joker” and I immediately knew he’d win an Oscar.
1:53 it's not an anamorphic lens it's spherical
The way Louis says "he just wrote the master" makes me laugh for some reason
I agree, it's great the way he says it. It is a very good piece of writing.
It's about alcoholism and the difference between having mastery over your life vs having zero control over it.
Idea for The Master came a lot about from L. Ron Hubbart and Scientology and all around cults. A lot about the idea is also how some cults have been like actual things of people trying to do something differend regarding to mental health and it turning into a cult (with it being the leaders initial intention or not). The movie displays it super well how you can become indoctrinated to a cult without even knowing you have. Takes kinda a perfect example of someone whose circumstances are just in the right place. Amy Adams character is another one who displays in a differend sense a person who isn't neccesarily as easy to see being lost but just get's so infactuated by the idea and the person behind it. Then ofc Philip Seymour Hoffman is those pretty perfect actors to come off sophisticated and charismatic intellectual who is kinda wacky at the same time to be the perfect head for the "movement"
It's not perfect and one of the most confounding movies I've ever seen, but one that I love and with outstanding acting. Can't believe PTA just wrote that screenplay from his mind as Louis said. Probably seen it at least 5 times and shown to various friends in my life because I need someone to share in my mystification haha
Anderson’s best movie (IMO).
I actually disagree that there is no additional allegorical meaning to the film. On my last viewing I realized that it works really well as an exploration of the Freudian model of the mind. Freddie Quell represents the id or animalistic mind, Peggy Dodd represents the super ego or moral conscience and Lancaster Dodd represents the ego or thinking mind which is trying to mediate between the desires of the other two. If you watch the film with this in mind you will see countless fascinating interactions between these parts. It also informs the way certain scenes were shot, as well as the way the actors are posed and blocked. I also think it’s why even though the characters are bizarre, we still see ourselves in aspects of them. Because they are all three contained in each of us
In stories there are characters called, 'Magicians.' Another term would be a wizard. They so exemplify a quality or capacity that they seem magical to everyone around them. In, 'The Master,' both characters are magicians, but of very different types. Hoffman's character is a master manipulator of people. Phoenix's character is a master manipulator of things. Phoenix turns gasoline into potions. He turns sand into a woman. He captures images into photos, but he can't manipulate, have a relationship or navigate any other person. Hoffman's character can't actually DO anything other than manipulate people.
Both can see the genius in the other and both respect that genius. They understand it is a lonely and terrible thing to be what they are and at the same time we live in a world where someone always has to be The Master.
The movie was based on his longtime coke dealer. They were very close, but his wife made him end the relationship. You can see the coke dealer in pretty much every old photo. People assumed he was part of making the film. Which he was I guess. But as a former addict I understand that relationship. Extremely complicated one.
Right
Philip Seymour Hoffman was a God. The Master is 2nd only to Before The Devil Knows Your Dead.
The movie is about the id the ego and the superego - and asks which one is the master?
This one was the movie that should had bring Joaquin Phoenix Oscar, not Joker.
After watching this movie, I felt that it was one of the best movies ever made, and one of the most impactful and meaningful to me. I loved it. I felt Phoenix and Hoffman both deserved an Oscar for their performances. It is my favorite movie for both of those actors, and from Paul Thomas Anderson. I always thought Louis CK was funny, but he does irritate me in many ways, comes across as a mid-wit, has super gross politics, etc. But he and I see eye to eye on this movie.
This is such a strange movie, but it gets better with time, or once you see it from a new angle. Louis almost touched on a point, but it set off a lightbulb in my head. What if you had this "fucked up guy" thrown in a blender with the worst possible way to get better.. and it worked? This is not the traditional way to treat someone with Freddie's issues, yet, somehow he winds up on the road to recovery, and he made a true friend along the way. He can never be part of Dodd's life, yet the effect was real. Freddie was stuck in a loop, but gets to move on.
(AP) VENICE - Director Paul Thomas Anderson said it's no secret that the central character in "The Master" was inspired by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Think it is an allegory of the struggle between the ego (Hoffman) and id (Phoenix). Just my interpretation…
Louis CK on the master-bater
It’s about Scientology
If he can keep it in his pants I think he'd make a great lead in a Philip Seymour Hoffman biopic.
I saw this movie in theaters. The whole theater hated this movie lol
Louis CK is The Mastur!
Master bater
No, PTA didn't "just write The Master out of some kind of fever". He very explicitly lifted much of the movie from John Huston's documentary 'Let There Be Light', which is about WW2 vets with PTSD trying to integrate back into society. It's also clearly inspired by Dianetics and the beginnings of Scientology. I think part of the reason the film feels so authentic and is executed with "extreme conscientious discipline" is because it is rooted in real life history.
PTA is a genius filmmaker and the pairing of Freddie (a character who is utterly lost and without direction) with Lancastor (someone claiming to have deep metaphysical answers to life's mysteries) is a wonderful pairing, but PTA didn't just pull it out of a dream. It's a semibiographical fantasy.
I think what Louie said is still true though. It does feel like it came from some fever dream or trancelike state. Even with the real-world inspirations, The Master is just such a hauntingly bizarre and way-the-fuck-outta-left-field, dreamlike trip into human nature. This is FAR from being some typical biopic or historical period piece lol it’s like radically strange and difficult, almost even demented at times (I say this all as praise, I love the movie). I guess my point is, it still totally feels like PTA must have been pulling stuff from DEEP in his subconscious to make The Master happen, and that comes across big time in the film.
TWBB is his greatest film without a doubt.
Scientology gave him the idea for the movie..
I thought this film was a loose depiction of L Ron Hubbard's Scientology origins.
[I gather myself….would you care for some informal processing]
The movie is titled “The Master” in earnest- esp. being executed after TWBB and Day-Lewis’ dynamo tour-de-force [turn them blue]…. How do you begin one-ing up that….
Well, If you’re PTA, you do this film, which is somehow simultaneously both under and over TWBB.
[sure…. What do I have to do?]
Naturally, TWBB will be in assured contention, but this film is THE MASTER-piece.
“Mawwage (sic) prior to the cause… was awwwful.”
Perhaps and so since it is an entirely original piece; not based on another work (as U. Sinclair penned “Oil!”)- we have PTA intentionally diving more forward and much deeper….. imagine this- m’kay… a DRAGON…. Tarantino one upping Pulp Fiction after PF… it doesn’t exist and is inconceivable in our universe, but what do I have… a Lasso… and I wring it around its neck and I WRESTLE…: it stays on command.
The exact formula for this film will far exceed Kubrick’s equations in many years’ time. Unintelligible as that seems…. Time and relativity are now in working towards its absolute adopted general consensus.
De Facto- in TWBB we had the scintillating, singular performance (Dani, artfully arriving at under in every co-inhabited scene), in THIS piece we have an unprecedented DIAD written for….
Apocalypse Now, Godfather, Streetcar eat your fucking hearts out….. the master works most efficiently off TWO performances bestowed upon us and carried on about this film, as will be revealed beyond the present feeble comprehension even now..:. Mark. These. Words.
“And now we’re going to teach it to roll over and play dead”…..
The only way you’re PTA and subvert yourself at this point arrives at an obvious conjunction….. adapt Pynchon.
Do you even know what that suggests………:.?
Wtf did Louis say?
At the very end, when they are both sitting there and PSH tells JP that if he sees him in another life they will be sworn enemies and he will show JP "no mercy" and JP just bursts out laughing.. what is he laughing at?
Is he not just realizing how batshit and full of shit PSH is at that point? Or is it something else?
block of ice and a hyena loool
...not of his own domain in front of unwilling women
I'll be honest. This film bored the shit out of me.
This bums me out, I really liked this channel, now ive got to click the "do not recommend" because they want to post videos made by sexual predators. Neat.
You got it all wrong
How C.K. is suddenly non-radioactive is beyond me, but having a serial public masturbator review “Thr Master” is objectively funny.
Its not trying to say anything?.......Scientology please 😅
This is the only PTA movie I hate
Great looking movie but hollow and poorly edited and written
This movie is boring as shit
The Master is brilliant not because it's a great film, but because everyone talks about it as if it's a great film. The discourse around The Master mimics the film's subject matter in that everyone tries to convince themselves (and each other) that it's a great film when, in fact, it's a perfectly average film with a few really good (and beautifully filmed) scenes.
However, there's no movie here, just like the subject matter suggests. I swear PTA made this film in an effort to pull off the same thing L. Ron Hubbard did in convincing people that he had some amazing insight when, in fact, it was all a sham. It's like he knew he couldn't follow up There Will Be Blood with an equally great film, so he made an average film and tricked people into thinking it was a great film by making the film about the very thing he was trying to convince audiences of.
But if you think the film is brilliant it's because you're desperately trying to convince yourself it's brilliant only because everyone else says it's brilliant and you're not willing to tell the truth about the film for fear everyone will call you a fool and kick you out of the film nerd (scientology-esque) club. And that's the film's only real genius - it's an average film nobody wants to admit isn't actually that great but now all these years later people have convinced themselves the film really is some masterpiece.
But it's not. You've been tricked and lied to. The Master is not a great film, but what PTA did to fool critics and film nerds into thinking it was a great film was genius level. The Master is post-meta brilliant, but only in the context of the discourse surrounding it.
I mean, listen to what Louis CK is actually saying in this clip: he says it's a mess, it's beautiful, it's insane, it's slick ... he's saying what is always said about the film in that nobody knows what to make of it and so because nobody knows what to make of it that it must be brilliant and we're just not quite smart enough to figure it out. And it's not like Louis CK is some average film viewer - the guy knows his cinema, but he's fallen into the same trap as everyone else in thinking it's brilliant solely because he doesn't know what to make of it and can't actually explain what the film is really about, other than "it's a mess".
Surely with everyone else in the room saying how great it is, you stand alone, the only person out of many to that knows how not-special it is. You’re the only one who gets it.
Lol damn man, I’m sorry it was over your head or whatever, but speak for yourself. The Master is maybe PTA’s greatest cinematic achievement, and that’s saying a lot for an artist who has done pretty much consistently amazing work.
😂😂
it ain't that good
Agree.
If you already know the answer to your question, then why ask PIG FUCK
Comments section on this is pure shit