With the summer blockbuster season over, highbrow films begin to make their push into the awards season. Here at Slackers Selection we’ve sort of built a reputation for our love of everything but lowbrow. You may be asking why we’re even anticipating The Master. Know that it’s not that we don’t appreciate highbrow, because we do. Some of us actually have a few highbrow titles on our favorite of all-time lists. It’s just that we place a lot of emphasis on watchabilty when it comes to our film viewing. And frankly, more often than not, highbrow movies tend to rank low on our watchabilty scale. Films that can be categorized as cerebral or recondite rarely bring in high scores for us on watchability or pure rockin’ness, but again, that doesn’t mean we don’t love them.Today we take a look at Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film, The Master. The thing about this movie is, you don’t really want to have too much information going in. Judging by the trailer, the production doesn’t even want to give us too much information. It seems to be a project that deserves a blind read going in. We know everyone involved to be great craftsmen, so what possibly, if anything, could be said to heighten our interests?
From what little I’ve gathered (and want to know), the Paul Thomas Anderson film operates around a man (Philip Seymour Hoffman) seducing a wayward type (Joaquin Phoenix) into his… I guess we’ll call it a cult?
You have to hand it to Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) for being one of the more creative directors working today. Granted, his style may not be for everyone, but it’s that style that consistently lends itself to innovative filmmaking. Even with a short filmography, PTA instantly garnered much achievement and respect through his unique and provocative films. From what we can see, it looks like The Master will continue that trend.With a sophisticated cast including Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, and PTA veteran, Philip Seymour Hoffman, how could you not expect great things? Everything about this movie, starting with those involved, screams cerebral greatness. The promotional material (trailers, posters, etc.) have all remained veiled enough to not give away any vital information. Even with that veil though, the material remains highly alluring. Knowing who’s involved in the project and seeing the provocative trailers creates high expectations, I can only keep my fingers crossed that once we all make it to the theater we’ll be pleased with the product. With The Weinstein Company behind the project, I think we can only assume high honors come awards season for this movie.
The master will have a limited U.S.A. release September, 14 and will widen September 21, 2012.