The Master

New Oscar Categories We’d Like to See — And Who We’d Nominate to Win Them

By Jason Bailey on Feb 18, 2013 11:00am

The Academy hasn’t added any new Oscar categories since Best Animated Film was established back in 2001; that was the first in 30 years. Every winter we discuss ways to spice up the ceremony, whether it’s new hosts or new production ideas or streamlining the handing out of the statues — but maybe it’s time to rethink the categories… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on Sep 27, 2012 9:00pm

Today at Flavorpill, we explored street art that hides in plain sight. We considered freaking everyone out by wearing the American Horror Story Rubber Man costume for Halloween this year. We wondered if politics determined our beer preference. We watched a trailer for The Master that featured … Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Flick of the Week: ‘The Master’

By Jason Bailey on Sep 14, 2012 11:00am

The first close-up in The Master, the sublimely grand and wonderfully eccentric new film from Paul Thomas Anderson, holds tightly on the eyes of Freddie Quell, the troubled seaman played by Joaquin Phoenix. Anderson’s camera fixes on those eyes—fixates on them, really—and challenges us to understand what’s happening behind them. For a good long while, it’s anybody’s guess; Freddie is an opaque and worrisome protagonist, an aimless troublemaker and desperate alcoholic who puts himself into questionable situations with nary a moment’s hesitation. Throughout the film’s first act, those eyes are a blank, the actor following the lead of a director determined not to show his hand. And then he meets The Master. … Read More

Film

The Movies Hollywood Was Afraid to Make

By Jason Bailey on Sep 12, 2012 11:02am

Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master opens Friday in limited release — his first film in five years, though we certainly could have been waiting longer. Anderson’s oh-so-thinly-veiled portrait of a cult leader who seems an awful lot like L. Ron Hubbard knocked around Hollywood for a good long while before the writer/director finally found outside financing (more on that later); it’s one of several films — most of them related to religion, the movie industry’s primary hot button — that had to go the indie route when the major studios were afraid to touch them. After the jump, a brief history of movies Hollywood was too scared to make. … Read More

Film

Stream Jonny Greenwood’s Soundtrack to PT Anderson’s ‘The Master’

By Judy Berman on Sep 11, 2012 3:00pm

Paul Thomas Anderson’s long-awaited sixth film, The Master, finally hits theaters this weekend, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about that. It is, after all, the filmmaker’s first feature since his epic 2007 oil parable There Will Be Blood. Then there’s The Master‘s is-it-about-Scientology-or-isn’t-it story, and a bizarre yet intriguing cast that includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Laura Dern and even Friday Night Lights‘ beloved Landry (now Breaking Bad‘s not-so-beloved Todd), Jesse Plemons. But even among all the boldface names and controversial details, we’ve also been looking forward to the soundtrack, which reunites Anderson with Jonny Greenwood, composer of the unforgettable score for There Will Be Blood.

Although we imagine it’s best experienced along with the film, those who can’t wait to hear the Radiohead guitarist’s soundtrack can now stream it on Spotify. Our first listen has revealed a score that’s not as intense but just as emotionally resonant as There Will Be Blood‘s. Greenwood makes poignant use of both strings and woodwinds, integrating haunting period tracks like Ella Fitzgerald’s “Get Thee Behind Me Satan” and Jo Stafford’s “No Other Love.” Click through to listen to The Master soundtrack via Spotify. … Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: ‘The Master,’ ‘The Canyons,’ & ‘After Earth’

By Caroline Stanley on Jul 20, 2012 2:00pm

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week’s new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. This week’s seven new trailers do not feature Lindsay Lohan or Will and Jaden Smith — you’ll soon see why we find that so strange. Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More