My Grading System

A+ = Masterpiece (I hold back on this one.) / A = Great. / A- = Really Good. / B+ = Good. / B = Decent (Serviceable). / B- = Flawed but okay (For those times there's something redeeming about the work). / C+ = Not very good (Skip it). C = Bad. / C- = Awful. / F = Complete Disaster (I hold back on this one too).

Note on Spoilers: I will try to avoid ruining a story by going into too much detail. But if I wish to include some revealing points to my analysis I will try to remember to add a separate spoiler paragraph.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Master (2012)

The true master of this film is the writer/ director Paul Thomas Anderson.  What an accomplishment of cinematic storytelling.  Here's a love story between two men: a unstable WWII vet looking for healing and meaning in his life played by Joaquin Phoenix and a con man, new age religion/ cult developer seeming to enslave himself in his own Frankenstein theology played by the always incredible Philip Seymour Hoffman.   Love story, you say?  Sure, not a sexual one, but a psychotic bromance if there ever was one.  Yes, let's be clear, Hoffman's character is a thinly-disguised interpretation of real life creator of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard.   Is Anderson attacking Scientology?  Of course he is, the sneaky devil, but he's doing it by composing a fascinating drama between two lost souls battling their own demons the best way they can.  Hoffman lies and Phoenix misbehaves and tortures himself.  Visual stunning, seemingly perfectly acted, this film does what great art should and that is force its viewers to tackle big questions while looking in the mirror.  Grade: A-.
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