Los Angeles Review of Books
Notes on P.T. Anderson and The Master
by Tyler Sage

LIKE MANY AMBITIOUS FILMS, P.T. Anderson’s The Master generated a fair amount of controversy when it was released last fall. Some people loved it, some hated it, and many did not seem to know what to make of it. A number of critics, even those who lauded the film, claimed that it included no third act, or was altogether plotless; others dismissed it as either (or both) overwrought or dull. In some quarters, the film was portrayed as a masterpiece. In others, it was portrayed as insufferably highbrow and self-impressed, the kind of movie that makes you feel like an artistic Neanderthal if you don’t “get it.”

On the final point, there’s little ground for productive argument. Many people are antagonistic towards what they see as difficult movies, and don’t go to the theater to be challenged. There’s nothing wrong with this. In terms of the film’s aims and structure, however, it was surprising how misdirected were the complaints of formlessness or incompletion. The narrative of the film is whole and resolved. It is not a straightforward work, nor an easy one; it does, however, present a vision that is coherent and readable. And the most interesting — and least commented on — aspect of the film is that it is an example of what is becoming a clear trend in Anderson’s work: a reaction to the technical capacities of modern cinema, and to our contemporary cultural milieu, that is decidedly Modernist in nature. In this regard, The Master has much to say about our contemporary moment in both film and culture.

Read the full review here: http://lareviewofbooks.org/print.php?id=1305.