The Master (2012)

All Critics (220) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (191) | Rotten (31) | DVD (3)

In the end it may not have the emotional uplift the Academy or a popular mainstream audience craves, but make no mistake, this is an enthralling drama about a peculiarly American restlessness, and the striving for insight and grace.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Tom Charity

CNN.com

Top Critic

[A] challenging, psychologically fraught drama.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

The actors' commitment to their roles is impressive, but it's tethered to a weightless, airless movie, a film so enamored of itself, the audience gets shut out.

September 23, 2012 Full Review | Comments (54)

Rene Rodriguez

Miami Herald

Top Critic

The Master may go down as one of Paul Thomas Anderson's most compelling works for two simple reasons: Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

September 22, 2012 Full Review

Cary Darling

Dallas Morning News

Top Critic

Where There Will Be Blood transmuted sullen earth into flame and launched it violently skyward, The Master is, as its opening shot advertises, a more fluid undertaking, a story of ebb and flow.

September 21, 2012 Full Review

Christopher Orr

The Atlantic

Top Critic

The Master is as confounding as it is magnificent.

September 21, 2012 Full Review | Comments (6)

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

THE MASTER is challenging, perplexing, at times infuriating - and always thoughtful. Indelible. And always, always beautiful.

April 3, 2013 Full Review

Meredith Borders

Badass Digest

by itself, gives lie to the idea that Americans don't make great, nuanced, complicated films. It's sublime.

March 28, 2013 Full Review

Walter Chaw

Film Freak Central

Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is a challenging film, like most of his work. One that evokes a spellbinding performance out of Joaquin Phoenix.

March 3, 2013 Full Review

Jeremy Lebens

We Got This Covered

Despite sumptuous cinematography and sublime acting, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film ultimately feels a touch pointless.

March 3, 2013 Full Review

Tom Glasson

Concrete Playground

There is not too much by way of extras in the new Blu-ray release of the under appreciated film, "The Master," but what is there is excellent.

March 1, 2013 Full Review

Robin Clifford

Reeling Reviews

Phoenix and Hoffman both put on clinics, and Anderson's story, though meandering, never stalls.

February 26, 2013 Full Review

Phil Villarreal

OK! Magazine

Possibly the most misunderstood American movie of last year, Paul Thomas Anderson's most striking and original movie to date ultimately reveals itself to be a great thwarted American love story.

February 25, 2013 Full Review

Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

Admirável ao permitir que o filme desenvolva seus temas e personagens ao seguir em direções frequentemente inesperadas, Anderson continua a demonstrar seu talento como cineasta tanto pela maturidade de seus temas quanto por seu preciosismo estético.

January 25, 2013 Full Review

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

Refusing to wrestle with the veracity or the real implications of The Cause, one begins to question what is underpinning the entire exercise, an ambiguity that, as with Kubrick, will require multiple viewings to unravel.

January 20, 2013 Full Review

Andrew Simpson

Fan The Fire

The at-times-impenetrable film will require multiple viewings to fully appreciate the multitude of themes and subtext.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Matthew Odam

Austin American-Statesman

Anderson has achieved his mid-century epic, and in its pure 65mm sumptuousness, the great American movie.

January 8, 2013 Full Review

Harlan Jacobson

Boston Phoenix

THE MASTER is a brilliant film. THE MASTER is a confounding film. The Master is a terrible film. THE MASTER may talked about for the ages or forgotten in a few years. THE MASTER may be a masterpiece, THE MASTER may be empty of content...

December 28, 2012 Full Review

Jason Gorber

Filmfest

THE MASTER is brilliant and/or confounding and/or terrible. It may be talked about for the ages or forgotten in a few years. It may be a masterpiece, and/or it may be empty of content masked by strong moments of acting prowess and visual flare.

December 28, 2012 Full Review

Jason Gorber

Twitch

With almost no narrative progression, this film is basically a character study in which the main characters remain little changed and enigmatic.

December 10, 2012 Full Review

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

The least accessible of Anderson's films, and the least enjoyable, but it's intelligent and original enough for him to remain a "must-see" director.

December 4, 2012 Full Review

CJ Johnson

ABC Radio (Australia)

For me, it is a masterpiece, a visually stunning explosion of pure cinema, emotionally charged with a penetrating psychological punch. If you are bored by this film, to paraphrase the great Samuel Johnson, then you are bored with life.

November 22, 2012 Full Review

Brian Henry Martin

UTV

This is ( ... ) for cinephiles. You are expected to love it, but it sometimes left me scratching my head.

November 16, 2012 Full Review

Graham Young

Birmingham Mail

The Master is not short but, once you fill in the blanks, you find yourself constructing a meta-film that, if realised, would play for many, many more hours.

November 15, 2012 Full Review

Donald Clarke

Irish Times

• 1. Val Dodd: He's making all this up as he goes along. You don't see that? I could go to sleep for hours and when I woke up I wouldn't have missed a thing.
  – Submitted by Peter G (4 months ago)
• 1. British Receptionist: You look like you've traveled here.
  2. Freddie Quell: How else do you get someplace?
  – Submitted by Lyberis D (4 months ago)
• 1. Freddie Quell: What do you do?
  2. Lancaster Dodd: I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist and a theoretical philosopher. But above all, I am a man, a hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you.
  – Submitted by Lyberis D (4 months ago)
• 1. Lancaster Dodd: I would like to talk to you today about cold feet, and narrow minds. People with cold feet cannot move forward. People with narrow minds cannot move side to side.
  – Submitted by Josh E (5 months ago)
• 1. Lancaster Dodd: Are you thoughtless in your remarks?
  2. Freddie Quell: No.
  3. Lancaster Dodd: Is your life a struggle?
  4. Freddie Quell: No.
  5. Lancaster Dodd: Is your behavior erratic?
  6. Freddie Quell: No.
  7. Lancaster Dodd: Are you unpredictable?
  8. Freddie Quell: [farts and laughs]
  – Submitted by Josh E (5 months ago)
• 1. Mary Sue Dodd: He's dangerous, and he will be our undoing if we continue to have him here. Perhaps he's past help. Or insane.
  – Submitted by Josh E (5 months ago)