MOVIE · 2012

The Master

Drama138 min

After World War II, Freddie Quell is a volatile drifter and heavy-drinking veteran trying to find a place in civilian life when he falls in with Lancaster Dodd, the magnetic founder of a new movement called The Cause. Joaquin Phoenix's Freddie lurches between devotion and instability, while Philip Seymour Hoffman's Dodd treats him as both disciple and experiment. Amy Adams is Peggy, Dodd's watchful wife and a steady force within the group’s inner circle. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film follows the uneasy bond between a damaged follower and a self-fashioned spiritual leader as belief, dependence, and control begin to blur together.