Monday, September 17, 2012

A New 'Master' Piece by Anderson

Now, here's a movie. And it's about time. After a long summer full of studio blandness and an overall unambitious 2012 slate thus far, Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" is so good that it nearly makes up the difference.

The picture is stylistically closest to "There Will Be Blood," but it also shares some similar themes with "Boogie Nights" (father-son scenarios and outsiders being brought into a dysfunctional family). And yet, the film is easily the most opaque of Anderson's work. It often defies convention and concludes with a series of scenes that could best be described as "inconclusive."

It's a beguiling film that is filled to the brim with gorgeous cinematography - shot in 65mm and projected in 70mm - as well as career-best performances by several of its actors and a screenplay that will leave you with a lot to chew on.

I also caught Nicholas Jarecki's "Arbitrage," a solid Occupy Wall Street-toned thriller that features a great performance by Richard Gere.

Between the two films, the fall season has started with a bang. Here are my Patch reviews.

This coming weekend, I'm going to try to catch all three of these films: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," "Trouble with the Curve" and "End of Watch."

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