The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

[flyonthewall2983]

Toronto conference with Paul, Amy Adams, and producer Joanne Sellar.

[tarpilot]

Kirkland is such a boob

[Reg]

Missed getting tickets for the Ziegfeld tomorrow, so going to plan on going Saturday morning instead.

Can anyone recommend one of the theatres in NYC? "New York, AMC Lincoln Square (70mm), Village East Cinema (70mm), The Angelika (70mm)"

Never been to any of them. My first instinct is to go to the non AMC, but reading yelp(bad idea) has turned me off all of them lol. Thoughts?

[hearthesilence]

Lincoln Square. They have some HUGE theaters. Last time I went there was to see the Coens' True Grit, and what otherwise would've been terrible seats were actually really good due to the size of the screen.

The Angelika blows. Village East is okay, but definitely not in the same league.

[Guido]

While we're on the subject of 70mm venues, what do Boston folks think of Coolidge Corner Theater? The Master screening this month would be my first visit...

[Jeff]

Kent Jones' Film Comment piece.

[ianthemovie]

The Coolidge Corner Theater is great. I've only been a handful of times because I live clear across town, but they're a legit operation--they show great stuff, it's a lovely venue, and their audiences tend to be generally smart and respectful folks who really love film. It has a solid reputation and is one of the major art house theaters in the Boston area. I wish I could get there more often, especially since they screen a lot of great older films and midnight/cult stuff. From what I understand based on their website The Master will be showing in Theater 1, their main screen, which is capable of projecting 70mm. I've been in that particular theater once before; the thought of seeing The Master in that room with a huge crowd is definitely exciting.

[Niale]

Reading through even the bad reviews this film has received, it's amazing how complimentary they are!

[dekadetia]

The complete score is now streaming at Spotify.

Update: I'm surprised (and a bit disappointed) to find that some bits of dialogue are interspersed throughout (though pretty sparsely, it seems).

[hearthesilence]

Just got back from the screening tonight, and holy fuck, it wasn't another mere pop-up screening, it was pretty much a full-blown movie premiere. Paul Thomas Anderson and Joaquin Phoenix were not there, but there were a TON of other well-known faces who were.

[mfunk9786]

Name names sir

My wife owes me huge for traveling this week, making it impossible for me to travel to NYC tonight on such short notice (long story beyond that). I was at the DDL/PTA screening of There Will Be Blood though. So I have that.

[hearthesilence]

Amy Adams, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, David Strathairn, Bob Balaban, Jack McBrayer, Luis Guzmán, I think Ambyr Childers, a lot of attractive women, probably models (ex: someone took a photo of a German accented blonde that I couldn't recognize but I sure as hell can't forget)...a ton of names I'm missing, but Christ Almighty, I did NOT expect this, they threw everyone in the same lobby, so it wasn't like they were way over yonder.

And FWIW they gave us free popcorn and bottled water.

[Jeff]

well-known faces

This smug mug was in the house with you tonight too. Can't wait to read that review.

[hearthesilence]

Haha, no kidding? Also, a friend told me Zosia Mamet was there from Girls, but I haven't seen that show.

Someone just sent me the red carpet photos, which is probably missing a lot, but most of those faces, I didn't even run into. (Albert Maysles was there!):

[mfunk9786]

JD from the Howard Stern Show was there

[Reg]

Damn that sounds awesome!

Anyway, I have a follow up Q to my theater question. Does anyone have a clue what the different theater options are for AMC Lincoln Square?

I see three options with different showings:
1. Digital
2. VIP Room
3. Nothing, no description

[wattsup32]

I just called. Both VIP and "no description" are 70mm.

VIP, by the way, is a "fandango mistake."

Anyone seeing the 715?

[Drucker]

I'll be there Sunday morning. Tickets are only 7 dollars!

[mfunk9786]

I'll be at the Village East... but can't get to NYC until Monday

[Robert de la Cheyniest]

I'm still not sure what to say about this film, the biggest compliments I can give it at the moment are that, all the images are still swimming around in my head 2 days later, and that I absolutely can't wait to watch it a second time. I'll also say that (this isn't much of a spoiler but I'll do it anyway since I saw the movie early):

Spoiler

the "processing" scene between Phoenix and Hoffman

Is maybe the best single scene Anderson has ever done, which is saying something.

See it in 70mm any way you can, doesn't matter if you have to travel far, it's worth it.

[mfunk9786]

This looks like something that was mailed to domino in order to taunt/aggravate him

[Alan Smithee]

http://m.gawker.com/5943086/there-will- ... the-master" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
First bad review.

[mfunk9786]

There are a few others (peep Rotten Tomatoes)

[Alan Smithee]

I see you're correct, fairly low number. Looking through the RT reminds me how much I like Karina Longworth. Hoberman is missed from the voice but she's good.

[warren oates]

Saw it at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood this morning in 70mm. I'm a huge fan of Anderson's last two films with no small interest in the mechanics of Scientology, so this comes as a big disappointment in most respects. The performances were all good, especially Phoenix's, the best he's ever done. (A friend I saw it with was ready to compare it with De Niro's work in Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, but I'm not quite fully on board with that level of praise.)

The script is kind of a mess. It's never clear what Phoenix's character really wants/needs. Which is fine at the beginning. He's a man with more than a few problems. But as the film wears on, there's nothing to build to, nothing to guide/juke our expectations about what's going to happen. When Hoffman's master shows up, they just kind of meet cute and too easily slide into getting it on cult-wise. There's plenty of good enough scenes between them. But because it's never really clear what's at stake for either one, I wasn't able to care about any of it like I should have.

Likewise, thematically and big idea-wise, I couldn't tell you what this film is about. Or why it's necessarily set in the milieu of a burgeoning self-help cult instead of, say, American business. Of the three other people I went with, only one really liked it, but even he didn't have an answer to this crucial question. Why cults? Why post WWII? Why Scientology-a-clef? Couldn't this story of a troubled drifter and his roguish mentor have been set arbitrarily in any number of other worlds?

Everything really falls apart in the last 30-45 minutes or so. The film meanders. There are a number of dramatic beats that are repeated multiple times to less impact each time. People travel places but don't seem to know or care why they're doing it. And there's one disastrously pointless set piece.

Frankly, I'm of two minds about the 70mm, having seen a number of high resolution screenings in the past few months (Prometheus in 3D IMAX, Playtime in 70mm, Samsara in 4K). It was cool to see non-epic events and mundane cinematography writ large and in such high resolution. There's no spectacle as such in this film. Most of the key moments play out in medium shots or close-ups. But having seen it this way, I'm not sure it's necessary for the full impact of the film, that I would have felt any differently seeing it in 35mm or the equivalent DCP for the first time.