I've always been a huge fan - from Gladiator to Walk The Line to We Own The Night to Two Lovers. For a while, I thought we're going to lose this talent forever. In 2008, he announced that he had retired from acting to pursue a rapping career. In early 2009, who could forget his eccentric and incoherent interview on the Late Show with David Letterman? Although he later claimed that his 'retirement' and strange behaviour were for a mockumentary I'm Still Here (which very few people watched), the damage was already done.
But it's worth the wait to see him in The Master. In fact, even though both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Phoenix co-won the Best Actors Award in the Venice Film Festival this year, 60 percent of the film focuses on Phoenix rather than Hoffman. Phoenix plays the tormented sailor Freddie Quell with such fierce intensity - whether he's screwing around with his women; going through a psychiatric session with his Master and mentor; or acting out his pain via his violent bouts - we, the audience, are totally mesmerized by his emotions or the lack thereof in his eyes, his lack of coherence and his physical contortions.
By now, everybody must know that this is a movie about The Cause (possibly Scientology) and its charismatic founder Lancaster Dodd. The omnipresent and always convincing Amy Adams plays Dodd's wife Peggy who has a huge influence on the Master. But about an hour into the movie, I was looking at my watch. The movie is only two hours long, but it felt like three. I'm not sure what is the key message Anderson wants to convey to his audience - that all religious cults are based on some fake idolization of manipulative individuals? Or you can choose to believe in whatever suits you, even though it's a perpetual lie?
I have to admit that I've never been a fan of Anderson's. Except for Boogie Nights, I did not like Magnolia and There Will Be Blood. Nevertheless, the writer/director has been compared to Francois Truffaut and Martin Scorsese. The Master was beautifully shot on 70mm film (if you're willing to pay two dollars more to see this version) which produced a masterpiece on a resolution so high that digital can only dream of getting there in about 10 years or so, as I was told by tech geeks.
What strikes me most is the musical score by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. It's both haunting and beautiful. No wonder The Rolling Stone calls the film's music "haunting and hypnotic." Other musical contributions from Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford and Patti Page are all music that boomers grew up with. Greenwood's talents obviously go far beyond just being the guitarist for Radiohead.
Thirty-seven-year-old Joaquin Phoenix has never won an Oscar even though he was nominated many times - including his roles in Gladiator and Walk the Line. I really hope the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will do him justice next February!
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