The Master

 Year:  2012

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring:  Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Running Time:  137 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Freddie Quell (Phoenix), a troubled, heavy drinking World War Two veteran, finds it difficult to adjust to postwar American society.  His drinking, coupled with his violent, erratic behaviour, causes him to be fired from several jobs, as he drifts across the States.  In San Francisco, Freddie meets Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) the founder and leader of a movement known as "The Cause", which claims to help people using a confrontational technique called "Processing".  Freddie becomes fascinated by The Cause and the charismatic Dodd, and soon becomes a devoted follower.

This complex and often bleak drama, inspired by the early years of Scientology, is a powerful and sometimes disturbing piece of work.  Joaquin Phoenix gives one of his best performances as the violent alcoholic Freddie Quell.  The lecherous, mercurial Quell is often a deeply unlikeable character, but Phoenix gives us a glimpse of the humanity at his core.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is perfectly cast the charming, garrulous Dodd.  With Hoffman you can see how someone might fall for Dodd's line.  Dodd and Quell form a kind of father-son relationship, with Dodd frequently talking to him as if he's a small child, despite the fact that Hoffman was only seven years older than Phoenix.  There are moments, however, when Dodd's genial facade slips in brief explosions of rage.  Amy Adams plays Dodd's wife, Peggy, a quiet woman, who is a true believer in Dodd and The Cause, who is a mixture of charm, calm rage and steely determination.  There are also appearances from Laura Dean, Jesse Plemons and Rami Malek.  The film is far more than just a drama about a cult, it deals with America in the late 1940s early 1950s, the need to belong and the deep human will to believe in something.   Most of all it's about the strange connection between two men who are polar opposites and yet have a strange attachment.  Even when Freddie's bad behaviour alienates almost everyone around him, Dodd still insists in bringing him back into the fold.  The film's principal weakness is that it is quite meandering, it's one of those films where the story seems to have reached a conclusion, but there is still more to come.  However, this is a small criticism, since this is a truly great film.

Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rami Malek in The Master
  

Licorice Pizza

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring:  Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie

Running Time:  133 minutes

Genre:  comedy drama

San Fernando Valley, 1973:  15 year old high school student Gary Valentine (Hoffman) balances a successful career as a child actor with a number of entrepreneurial schemes.  One day he meets 25 year old photographer's assistant Alana Kane (Haim) and becomes instantly smitten with her.  Alana, however, is intrigued by Gary's chutzpah but considers him far too young for him.  Despite this the two forge a tentative friendship.

Paul Thomas Anderson is arguably one of the most important American filmmakers working today, as well as one of the most infuriating, but with Licorice Pizza, a tender, romantic comedy drama set in early '70s Los Angeles based on part on Anderson's own youthful experiences as well as those of his friend, producer and actor Gary Goetzman.  Cooper Hoffman, who is the some of the late, great actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in several Anderson films, makes his film debut as Gary, and delivers a great performance making Gary romantic, infuriating, admirable and funny, often all at the same time.  Alana Haim, of the rock band Haim, pretty much steals the movie as Alana Kane, and, as with Hoffman, this was her debut film.  The way their relationship plays out is fascinating and moving.  Despite being a teenager, Gary appears more self-confident and assured, he is a fairly successful actor and he is always coming up with money-making schemes.  He walks into his favourite restaurant, and basically owns the place.   Despite being ten years older, Alana works a miserable job, where her boss slaps her butt as she walks by him, and doesn't really know what she wants from life.  She is also more idealistic than the cynical Gary.  The film features Sean Penn, as a self-obsessed ageing actor based on William Holden, Tom Waits, sounding more than ever like an elderly Dalek, as a drunk director, Bradley Cooper delivers a hilarious performance as real-life producer Jon Peters, and Benny Safdie, one half of the filmmaking Safdie Brothers (directors of Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2919)) plays real-life politician Joel Wachs.  Alana Haim's two sisters and Haim bandmates Danielle and Este turn up as Alana Kane's sisters, along with their parents, Moti and Donna. Incidentally Anderson directed several of Haim's music videos, and Donna Haim was Anderson's art teacher at school.  This is not really a plot based film.  At times it feels more like a tour through a photo album of the sights and sounds of the period.  The fact is that this never gets wearying.  It may at times feel too loose, there are lots of interesting elements that don't really go anywhere, but such is life.  At the end of the film I was left so invested in the characters and their lives that I wanted more, and there can be no higher praise for a film than that.  It has a great seventies soundtrack too.

Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim in Licorice Pizza
    

Punch-Drunk Love

Year of Release:  2002
Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenplay:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring:  Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre: Romantic comedy 

Los Angeles:  Barry Egan (Sandler) is a lonely entrepreneur who owns a company which sells toilet plungers and other, similar novelty items.  He suffers from severe social awkwardness which is exacerbated by his seven sisters who ridicule and humiliate him constantly.  To make matters worse, he is given to bursts of violence when he is really upset or stressed.  Barry also collects large quantities of puddings for a frequent flier air miles promotion. 
After meeting and falling for shy Lena Leonard (Watson), Barry has a new purpose to life, but things become complicated when the operator of a phone sex line he called tries to extort money from him.    

This strange film is a very offbeat romantic comedy.  Although it adheres to the general boy meets girl formula, in terms of approach it is very different.  Adam Sandler contributes a striking performance, toning down his usual comic persona, and making it somehow darker, closer to the more realistic "cringe comedy" of someone like Ricky Gervais, but making his sudden bursts of violence even more disturbing.  Emily Watson's character is more if an enigma, which nevertheless hints at hidden depths.  The world of Punch-Drunk Love is a deeply strange one.  In each of Paul Thomas Anderson's carefully composed shots there is the hint of things happening in the background.  The whole thing has a dreamlike feel to it with love the thing that provides hope in a nightmare world.
Incidentally, any Murderinos may recognise the voice of Karen Kilgariff as one of Barry's sisters. 

Emily Watson and Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love 

Phantom Thread

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenplay:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring:  Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville
Running Time:  130 minutes
Genre:  Period drama

1950s London.  Reynolds Woodcock (Day-Lewis) designs highly desired dresses and garments for the members high society, including royalty.  An obsessive, controlling perfectionist, Woodcock lives a life of strict routine, haunted by the death of his mother, who has a penchant for sewing secret messages and items in his garments.  He forms relationships with women, who serve as his inspiration and muse for a time, until he discards them when he tires of them or they threaten his routine too much.  The only person Woodcock is close to is his sister, Cyril (Manville).  On vacation in the country, Woodcock becomes enamored of a young waitress, Alma (Krieps), and invites her into his world.  However, the strong-willed Alma soon threatens Woodcock's ordered lifestyle.

This is a sumptuous film almost everything on screen is beautiful.  It feels like a ghost story without a ghost, and it is a haunting film.  Director Paul Thomas Anderson commented that one of his inspirations was the work of ghost story writer MR James.  The performances are fantastic, with Daniel Day-Lewis, in what is reputed to be his final performance, giving an air of fragility and humanity to an essentially unlikable character.  Vicky Krieps also gives a great performance as Alma, and her bond with Day-Lewis feels genuine.  The film is surprisingly funny, with some hilarious scenes and lines, particularly the sequence where Woodcock snaps at Alma for the heinous crime of buttering her toast too loudly.  The relationship between Woodcock and Cyril is also intriguing, they have a kind of love-hate relationship, at one point Cyril tells him:  "Don't try and pick a fight with me, you certainly won't come out alive.  I'll go right through you, and it'll be you who ends up on the floor".  Because, of course, siblings know your weak spots, and know how to hit you where it hurts.
This is a beautiful, deeply moving and frequently hilarious film. 

Vicky Krieps and Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread