Review of The Master (2012) by Jcasetnl — 28 Dec 2015
THE MASTER is a very pretty turd of a film. Beautifully shot and acted but it's an incomprehensible mess. I've yet to find a person who can actually explain it, but quite a few who will leap to: "the point is there is no point! It's art!" Really? In that case, I point you to the episode of the original Batman TV series where The Joker enters a "painting" into an art contest that's just a blank canvas, entitled "The Emptiness of Life".
That managed the same trick and didn't take 2.5 hours to get there. There's an ever-present sense while watching THE MASTER that something deep and profound is going on just out of sight, but the film itself can't seem to find it.
Maybe that's its point about Scientology, but if so, again, I say "cheap trick". Well, Darren Aronofsky had THE FOUNTAIN and now PT Anderson has his "so incomprehensible the critics are afraid to pan it, but quickly forgotten" film, too.
This review of The Master (2012) was written by Jcasetnl on 28 Dec 2015.
The Master has generally received very positive reviews.
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