Paul Thomas Anderson has said numerous times that The Master is a love story between Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd. In that love story is a strong message about the pursuit of meaning in one's life. This pursuit, shown primarily through Freddie's perspective, travels to many fronts. First, Freddie is shown in the military and later it is revealed that he chose the military over staying with Doris, his lost love. Freddie has derived his meaning from this military life.…

Nicolas Winding Refn has managed to merge the seemingly unmergeable Kubrick and Lynch in this nightmarish modern take on the Oedipus myth. Both Kubrick and Lynch use an aesthetic that may at first seem impenetrable, but they have varied greatly in their approaches; Kubrick being more methodical and logical in his creation process, Lynch being more emotional and referential. Refn takes the painstaking time to turn every frame into a work of art and builds one of the most haunting…