The Quick Take: "The Master" is Revealed

Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

My brother walked into my room, telling me he needed to commandeer my computer and two minutes of my time. Being the endlessly generous man that I am, I conceded. He turned the computer away from my view and said, “don’t look yet, you need the full experience”.

So I sat down, only sure that I was about to watch a trailer of some kind, but unknowing of what movie. My brother begins the video, which he has expanded to full screen, and for the next one minute and forty seconds, I was blissfully introduced to the illustrious world of Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master.

The Master is the latest film from PTA since his 2007 release There Will Be Blood. With the footage present in the teaser released yesterday morning, it seems PTA might have squeezed out as good of a performance from Joaquin Phoenix as he did from Daniel Day Lewis. Phoenix is captivating, like he often is, bordering on hypnotic.

Watching the teaser, the twisted face of Phoenix peers past the camera, his gravelly voice overlays images of a beach and what appears like the inside of a navy tanker, and a Waitsian, somewhat out of tune beat drives the intensity of the scene like the rhythm of a fluttering heart. But it is with this simple construction that we see PTA has created one of the most enticing teasers in a long time. This is how you make a great trailer.

But one thing we believe here at The Alternate Take is that you should watch trailers until you’re sold on the movie. If the first one does it for me, I won’t be watching any more. So for me, I won’t be seeing any other footage of The Master until I’m sitting in the theatres. I suggest that no matter what the movie, don’t ruin the final experience for yourself by being over exposed to images or jokes you’re eventually going to see anyway. Be patient. This one will certainly be worth the wait.

Go experience The Master for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WTM8eO1Oec