Wow.

It doesn't happen often that all elements of what comprises film reach such a high level as with The Master. It brushes with perfection on so many an occasion which left me in complete awe for everyone involved in making this, but mainly because of the three main offenders; Phoenix, Hoffman and Anderson.

Paul Thomas Anderson is unmistakably a unique, powerful and resounding voice in cinema. Whenever he creates, something happens among lovers of film. Whenever he speaks through this wonderful medium I just have to listen. And while not all of his tales are equally impressive, they are always unique in style, content and themes. I find it amazing that a director who has received so much acclaim…

Paul Thomas Anderson is The Master. He is a filmmaker with grand visions, a director whose loyal followers pour over every word and dissect every scene and a writer who explores the failings and extremes of Man. Above all he is a hopelessly inquisitive man always striving forward and never burdened by contemporary fashion. And just like Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic false prophet at the centre of this film, his latest work is his most challenging, dense, contradictory and elusive to date.

Each new Anderson film is accompanied by unrealistic expectation. It would not be hyperbole to suggest he is one of the last truly great American filmmakers still at the peak of their creative powers. Yet with such a…

I'm not sure at this point that I can actually separate the circumstances under which I saw this film with the film itself.

When I got to the theatre, I wasn't expecting to see The Master. I had bought tickets to see Baraka in 70mm; I knew that there was a sneak peek going on that day, but I had assumed it was happening later, after Baraka. It wasn't until I picked up my tickets and the ticket lady asked if I was excited or bummed out, that I found out that I was about to get to see The Master.

Sitting in the audience, I wondered, how crazy would it be if PTA were there?

IT WAS REALLY FUCKING…

Link to my tl;dr review.

I find it hard to step back and take a critical look at The Master (or any of Paul Thomas Anderson's films, for that matter). Sometimes, films (or albums, or novels) just resonate with you, and you become emotionally attached to them. Sometimes you latch onto them so tightly that it takes years for the joy of the experience to fade and you can appropriately and fairly judge them. Your mind hears other people's criticisms and works to defend them, however tangential, frivolous, and contradictory those defenses might be. That feeling has not yet faded for Magnolia, so I think I've got a few more years of The Master-worship in me.

The most common complaint…

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is PT Anderson's best film yet. Yes, I think it's even better than There Will Be Blood. It's his most challenging, dense, and assured work to date. It forces you to look inwards in order to connect on an intellectual and emotional level, but it also challenges you to contemplate the entirety of human nature and what drives us. Just like PT Anderson's other films, it's extremely rich thematically, exploring control, power, regret, loneliness, action, belief, and truth. It's dense, but it's rewarding.

To say this film is stunning is a gross understatement. The richness of the picture is something that probably has to be seen on the…

Sem saber explicar bem a razão, estive durante meses, relutante acerca deste filme e mais ainda em o ver. Não me apetecia ver este filme e recusava-me, na fase dos Oscars principalmente, em lhe colocar a vista encima. Agora que já quase não se fala do filme, lancei-me a ver os filmes que por vezes deixo para trás e disse a mim mesmo "E porque não? Fiz play... e... até gostei bastante do filme.

É um bom filme que tenta abordar aquilo que não é palpável na humanidade (aproximando-se no trato e até dos temas que o Terrence Mallick agora tanto gosta).
Um misto de espreitar a alma de cada um, complicando essa abordagem com um culto e as diferentes…

I found this film brilliant. I've heard polarized opinions about the film, so I had to check it out for myself. Two hours of my life were immersed in flowing shots, fantastic soundtrack, extraordinary acting and a story that...well I still don't know what to think.

Personally, I think it's a story about a friendship. Not a homosexual relationship (as many would have you believe), but a simple friendship between two men who see something in the other that they admire and want.

The characters in the film felt like real people, not just film characters. I think it was the fact that we discovered their character slowly over the course of the film rather than all at the start.…

The Master is the latest towering achievement from one of the masters of modern cinema, Paul Thomas Anderson. It is an experience that has the ability to completely change your perception about movies and their way of following ideas in a narrative that both confuses and delivers at the same time and gets its job done in the end far deeply than what you basically see. For a movie to be this much perfect on so many levels (both technically and themes that it explores), tells so much about its characters, people in general, life, struggles, religion, teachers, followers, drifters is just mind blowing. For great cinema lovers, this is heaven in its purest form. For others, its a confusing,…