Plot can take a backseat to atmosphere if you're Stanley Kubrick, but that's only because his movies look so good. Paul Thomas Anderson is better at writing dialog than he is at conveying an idea visually, which is why he's at his best when he crams his movies with exposition, like he did with Boogie Nights and Magnolia.

ACTING! tag! No way, Jose. Phoenix and Hoffman are heavy weights dooder.

Ugh not a reply.

@voidy Not sure why anybody expects the narrative of a shell-shocked sex freak that comes under the wing of a cult to be coherent.

In "There Will be Blood", the pacing was similar, but at least there was scenery and great set-pieces like the well blowout. There's simply not enough of interest aboard the Not the Sea Org to catch the eye during the slow bits.

Really a niche film, of interest only to those fascinated/repelled by L. Ron Hubbard's early days.

Oh, but I am. I just wish somebody would make the Jack Parsons biopic that connects Aleister Crowley with Hubbard as a logical continuity. I'd love to see John Malkovich as Crowley and Seth Rogan as Hubbard.

!

I too want to see John Malkovich sodomize Seth Rogan! I just now realized that.

I've never seen it, I just thought Hoffman's lines here were a little goofy, but sometimes trailers fail to capture a movie's context when choosing sound bites.

What's it actually like?

It's great.

dumpster will never see this, but it's a great film. I have no idea how voidy could say that this movie lacks atmosphere, it oozes it.

5 for kingarthur though. I sling my stars where I want.

we middlebrows are a defensive lot

Would even say that with this movie PTA moved from middlebrow to highbrow, and the brilliant moments outweighed some narrative slackness.

But, kingarthur, at least the other people who disagree with you about The Master are giving you and your disparagement of it 5 stars anyway because they love you.

Way to play that C card!!

God damn get stoned or something, you fucking prick. How dare you say "play the C card." Bastard.

What the fuck is so great about this movie? Tell me without a one word adjective, if you can speak fucking english.

Fuck you just pissed me off for a long goddamned time.

memey-d, I am just about 100% positive that kingarthur would read this and know that I am teasing him out of affection.
Nothing else.

I have had two friends with cancer where "playing the C card" became a running joke. I'm willing to bet that a poetv person might also go with that.

Apologize.

Apology accepted, but you forgot the "I".

Exactly.