The Master 2012

Michael Nordine, L.A. Weekly: What seems revelatory in the moment is often obvious in retrospect. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: The problem with The Master is that it doesn't extend or expand Anderson's artistic journey. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: Quite possibly the movie of the year, or the decade. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: This is a movie that defies understanding even as it compels reverent, astonished belief. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: 137 minutes of Joaquin Phoenix's nose hairs is not my idea of appetizing. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: As gifts to homo sapiens go, it's a rich one. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Aiming for epic, it's undeniably thought-provoking, but too ambiguous to fully satisfy. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: This portrait of 1950s America is like none you've ever seen, and it's unsettling - but the minute it was over, I wanted to watch it again. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It's a feisty, contentious, deliberately misshapen film, designed to challenge and frustrate audiences looking for a clean resolution. Just because it's over doesn't mean it's settled. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The film is not an epic. It's not a masterpiece. But it is an involving study of men searching, searching for answers, for belonging, for a foothold in life at a time when footholds were hard to find. Read more

Steve Mirarchi, Boston Globe: The film is interested in a cult of personality. Like Anderson's previous movie, "The Master" is a portrait of megalomania. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [A] challenging, psychologically fraught drama. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Warts, wanderings, reiterations and all, this is a film destined to be processed in many different ways. And hallelujah to that. Read more

Tom Charity, CNN.com: In the end it may not have the emotional uplift the Academy or a popular mainstream audience craves, but make no mistake, this is an enthralling drama about a peculiarly American restlessness, and the striving for insight and grace. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master is a disturbing experience in ways that matter. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Entrancing from first frame to last. The lights go down, they come up 137 minutes later, and you're left to ask yourself: What on earth did I just see? Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The Master is as confounding as it is magnificent. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Both Phoenix and Hoffman are on fire within their characters. If only they'd had some place to go. Read more

Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News: The Master may go down as one of Paul Thomas Anderson's most compelling works for two simple reasons: Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: The movie may not even be fully comprehensible on first viewing, the bigger patterns in the narrative and the rhythms of the filmmaking revealing themselves more fully and clearly only with a return visit. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: Beautifully done, but oppressive and claustrophobic. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: A bold, challenging, brilliantly acted drama that is a must for serious audiences. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's a film bristling with vivid moments and unbeatable acting, but its interest is not in tidy narrative satisfactions but rather the excesses and extremes of human behavior, the interplay of troubled souls desperate to find their footing. Read more

Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News: The first time watching is like breezing past a piece of beautiful art, being stunned, uncertain and intrigued by it. The second time can only encourage more interpretation, reflection and understanding. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The actors' commitment to their roles is impressive, but it's tethered to a weightless, airless movie, a film so enamored of itself, the audience gets shut out. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: It's a mess; it's pretentious; it is thundery with dismay. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: It's a surprisingly compassionate look at two people: A lost sheep and his shepherd. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: On reflection, and despite these cavils, we should bow to The Master, because it gives us so much to revere, starting with the image that opens the film and recurs right up to the end. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: The Master will burrow its way into your mind, heart and soul, and simmer there long after you leave the theater. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: Gorgeous to look at and an absolute feast of strong and interesting acting. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Phoenix gives the performance of his career. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: It's a sharply written, unforgettably directed character study with brilliant performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams ... Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Master is a work that demands attention, and it satisfies on many levels - it is a film of intelligence and ambition, teeming with ideas, assembled with fearless artistry. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: It is the work of an artist; every shot is carefully composed. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Master" is fabulously well-acted and crafted, but when I reach for it, my hand closes on air. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: I believe in the church of Paul Thomas Anderson. Fierce and ferociously funny, The Master is a great movie, the best of the year so far, and a new American classic. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This is an almost apocalyptic tale of thwarted emotion - love cut short - set in a pitiless land of delusions. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A film that starts off seeming like the best of 2012 becomes a chore to sit through, and I suspect that few, even among this film's enthusiasts, will come to the end of the movie wishing there were more. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: I left the theater not entirely sure what The Master was about. I can't wait to get back and see it again. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Anderson's audacious films defy facile interpretation. Having seen it just once, I'm not sure I grasp it. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: For film fans who have lost faith in the transportive power of cinema, "The Master" will make you a believer. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Where There Will Be Blood transmuted sullen earth into flame and launched it violently skyward, The Master is, as its opening shot advertises, a more fluid undertaking, a story of ebb and flow. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: [Phoenix and Hoffman] suggest duelling Brandos. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Likely Oscar nominees both, Phoenix and Hoffman command the giant screen so completely it's hard to imagine anyone pulling it away from them. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: 'The Master' is another tale of warped power and fanatical delusions, and it sees Anderson on captivating form as a director who is able to surprise and impress with scene after scene. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Ponderous and demanding, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest slows to a rattlesnake-swallowing-a-mouse lurch, a pace that makes There Will Be Blood feel like Boogie Nights. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: In his first film since the 2010 performance-art stunt of "I'm Still Here," Phoenix once again digs deep to mine his character's inner torment and comes up with a mix of haunting quirks and tics. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A sustained immersion in a series of hypnotic moods and longueurs, an imposing picture that thrillingly and sometimes maddeningly refuses to conform to expectations. Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: It's a film of breathtaking cinematic romanticism and near-complete denial of conventional catharsis. You might wish it gave you more in terms of comfort food pleasure, but that's not Anderson's problem. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Anderson is a romantic who has earned his nihilism. He clarifies nothing, but leaves us brooding on our own confusion. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "The Master" turns out to be more of a self-defeating whimper than the big, important bang it could have been. Read more