The Playlist

Surprise: Telluride Unveils Quick Sneak Peek Of James Gray's 'The Nightingale' Starring Marion Cotillard & Joaquin Phoenix

By Rodrigo Perez
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September 2, 2012 3:23 PM
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15 Comments

News

Disappointment with too few showstoppers has been a common complaint at the Telluride Film Festival this weekend (mostly by privileged film critics and Oscar bloggers wanting more sizzle). Each year, Telluride sneaks a few surprise films not listed on the official line-up and generally of marquee value (last year, "Butter" was one of the big contenders). This year, the only not-so-secret surprise was Ben Affleck's entertaining thriller "Argo." While a terrific suspense film, only one surprise left many pundits wanting more.

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Venice Review: 'The Master' Is Paul Thomas Anderson's Most Complex And Distinctive Film To Date

By Oliver Lyttelton
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September 1, 2012 7:37 AM
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22 Comments

Reviews

No movie has been more keenly anticipated by cinephiles in 2012 than Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.” The filmmaker has been one of cinema’s most exciting new voices for a decade and a half now, but reached a new level of adulation with his last picture, ”There Will Be Blood,” which won awards and topped critical lists the world over five years ago. As such, the genesis and production of “The Master” was avidly followed, not least because the film was long ago said to revolve around a fictionalized surrogate of L. Ron Hubbard and his ever-controversial Scientology, and because Anderson had shot the film on 70mm film, the first major production to do so since Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” in 1996.

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Synopsis For Spike Jonze's Film With Joaquin Phoenix Reveals Futuristic Setting, Official Title Revealed

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 31, 2012 1:28 PM
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6 Comments

News

Okay, this isn't entirely revealing stuff we sort of didn't already know, but considering how shrouded in mystery Spike Jonze's next feature is, this is a pretty nice new bit of official information. But before we get to it let's just recap for a moment. The new film, Jonze's first full length effort since 2009's sublime "Where the Wild Things Are," stars Joaquin Phoenix with a trio of leading ladies in "The Master" co-star Amy Adams, Rooney Mara and Olivia Wilde. Plot details thus were said to center on a man who fell in love with a Siri-like voice. But that's not quite accurate.

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"I Lost My Ship": Watch Another New Clip From Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 20, 2012 6:15 PM
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7 Comments

News

After screenings in Santa Monica, Chicago and New York City, now it's San Francisco's turn to experience Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master." And with it comes yet another clip from the film.

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Review: ‘The Master’ Proves A Brave, Sensual Yet Detached Triumph For Paul Thomas Anderson

By Charlie Schmidlin
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August 17, 2012 7:32 AM
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25 Comments

Reviews

Even amongst its most wrenching scenes of unfettered anger and broken loyalty, a volatile sensuality nonetheless invades every frame of Paul Thomas Anderson’s arresting “The Master.” Populated by characters certain in their sexual and loving instincts yet stubborn in claiming responsibility for them, the film holds an unseen, persuasive force just off-screen to keep each on edge, never fully comfortable in their own skin. However, while the film’s narrative may point to faith as a cause and cure, the end result focuses instead on the reverberating pain in one’s past, and the oblique, often-maddening ways it manifests in the present through incredible performances and direction.

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Watch: Love, Pleasure & Pain In New Clip From Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 15, 2012 10:28 PM
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8 Comments

News

"It's not the L. Ron Hubbard story," Philip Seymour Hoffman told Entertainment Weekly in last week's issue. "[Scientology] was one of the bigger movements at the time, but there were a lot of movements at that time. There's nothing about how I'm behaving or talking that echoes [Hubbard]." And while the bigger thematic arc of the film is beginning to show its colors, it seems pretty clear to us that Joaquin Phoenix is being audited in this new clip from the film.

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Paul Thomas Anderson Secretly Premieres 'The Master' In Santa Monica; First Reactions Are Largely Wildly Positive

By Oliver Lyttelton
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August 4, 2012 8:39 AM
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39 Comments

News

You have to hand it to Paul Thomas Anderson. Five years ago, the director unveiled his last film, "There Will Be Blood," as a surprise at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, skipping the established festival circuit entirely for a film that turned out to be the best received of 2007. It seemed, briefly, that his follow-up, "The Master," might have a more conventional release strategy for an awards-type film, with news leaking out that the film was set to premiere at Venice before going on to TIFF, perhaps suggesting a more conventional type of marketing push from distributors The Weinstein Company.

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Hopelessly Inquisitive: 18 New Images From 'The Master' With Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman & Amy Adams

By Kevin Jagernauth
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August 2, 2012 8:16 AM
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8 Comments

News

After tracking the project over the last couple of years, and trying to keep up with its progress despite Paul Thomas Anderson's working methods, which usually keep details close to the chest, it's hard to believe that in the next six weeks "The Master" will play Venice and TIFF before hitting a theater near you. Soon, every inquisitive mind will know the secrets of Philip Seymour Hoffman's Lancaster Dodd, and to help peel back the curtain, 18 new images from the film have arrived.

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New Look At Joaquin Phoenix & Marion Cotillard In James Gray's Period Drama 'Low Life'

By Simon Dang
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July 23, 2012 8:58 AM
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8 Comments

News

One of the biggest question marks and most exciting prospects of this coming fall is the potential return of New York writer-director James Gray who, after 2008's underrated drama "Two Lovers," reunites with Joaquin Phoenix and teams with Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner for an untitled 1920s set drama formerly known as "Low Life."

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Watch: Astonishing First Full Trailer For Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master'

By Kevin Jagernauth
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July 19, 2012 7:53 PM
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38 Comments

News

Does the overt happiness from the first two teaser trailers make you feel shame? Do the films of Paul Thomas Anderson make you unduly excited? Do you enjoy the performances of Joaquin Phoenix beyond all reasonable health? Does Philip Seymour Hoffman make your pupils dilate? Do you get occasional twitches of your muscles from the music of Jonny Greenwood? Does the knowledge that this film was shot in 65mm make you impulsive to buy a ticket?

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