The Master

2.5/5

I read that this is a movie for only intelligent movie goers. I consider myself a pretty intelligent filmgoer.  More so, I recognized and understood the symbolism I caught, the story was simply understood to me, the characters were intriguing...at the end of it, however, I was annoyed. Not with lack of intelligence, not with the acting (which was, to be fair, phenomenal). I was annoyed with how purposeless it all felt. Nothing rang as necessary, nothing felt important and sadly nothing felt real. It had beautiful cinematography, with not much else to back it up. That's what a lot of people have told me about past works - look at the pretty pictures, get over everything else, and you'll have a good movie experience. But that's impossible with this. Everything holds itself on such a pedestal and with such unnecessary importance that I can't forgive it. I'll give some major props to Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour-Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Each of them do deserve an Oscar nom in their respective category.