Logging

Film:  The Master

This movie is all craft and no story.  So if you like that sort of thing, bravura.  If you're like me, you'll be bored and waiting for the movie to be over.  The only thing I read/heard about The Master prior to watching was the Moviegoers podcast and obviously, in waiting this long to see it, I wasn't all that excited.

I feel like during the downtime on set (of which I'm sure there was a lot to figure out those camera set ups and perfect light) many of the actors were practicing their Oscar speeches and what to wear on the film festival circuit.  It reeked of wanting critical praise and love from cinephiles.  A Freudian might interpret Philip Hoffman as a PTA surrogate and his film fans as Joaquin Phoenix.  Imagine being in a room full of fans of this film and talking shit - you'd get apples tossed and and wrestled into a headlock for questioning what their Master is trying to do.

Look - I'm just not a fan of these cryptic films (or books or music for that matter).  Does no one understand how much easier it is to tell a story this way -- when one isn't beholden to plot, logic, pacing, or keeping the audience engaged with story?  It just becomes the whims of the director.  And to quote Landry from Friday Night Lights, "he's just making this up as he goes along."  So if you like that sort of thing - there is plenty of films out there for you right now.  But my one bone of contention with what Brower and Phil brought up in the podcast is - we must not blindly support or praise PTA or Malick or other filmmakers who make grand cinematic projects with incoherent (or just bad) stories - simply because they are NOT studio fare (ie Resident Evil 6, etc, etc).  This is a reactionary impulse and amounts to celebrating a film for what it is NOT versus what it IS.  I'd rather not go down that road.  And whatever - PTA and Malick can make lousy films.  Since when did their skin get so thin?  Since when do they need praise?  If their heart is in the right place and these are films and stories they need to tell, they shouldn't care about what the reaction is.  After all, the Thetans will be watching it in 1 billion years and probably think it is the only film of our era worth remembering.