Saw The Master which is directed by P T Anderson whose work I love and which is about a PTSD-suffering sailor who gets involved with The Cause - a cult loosely based on Scientology. I remember the the Scientology angle got a lot of press at the film's release but it's really not such a good angle to view the film from. There are parallels but the film is not satire and is only tangentially to do with anything so specific.
I think the film is much more about two men who need each other very much. The charismatic con man who is head of the cult, who needs easily manipulated people around him, and the protagonist, a man who very obviously needs help. The protagonist recognizes, on some level, that this is all fanciful lies, but he doubles down, furiously lashing out at several people who so much as question the deeply silly doings of The Cause. The leader (Master) for his part is amazing. Played with oily grace by Philip Seymour Hoffman, he spins these great yarns of nonsense that only vaguely hang together, himself rising to a bellow whenever seriously questioned. Great stuff.
I don't feel I fully understand this film. There's a theme of deception and intimacy but I don't feel I have it pinned down. P T Anderson's work here is (as ever) hypnotic and dense, luring you (or me anyway) into an obsessive, almost hypnotic state. There are gorgeous black voids and nervy violins on the soundtrack. Great, dense, confusing stuff. I liked it!
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