The Master Discussion

When Phillip Seymour Hoffman passed away unexpectedly nearly two months ago, my immediate mental image of the actor was as Lancaster Dodd, aka "Master," in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master. There's a good chance it's because it's the most recent film in which I've seen Hoffman, but I also believe it to be his most impressive role. As a way of paying tribute to this towering screen icon, Kenji Fujishima and I decided to make Anderson's latest movie the focus of our second Passing Notes feature at In Review Online (following our January discussion of Mean Streets). I'd already written about The Master at length upon its release, but this discussion burrows into far more specific nooks and crannies of what I still consider to be a slightly overlooked achievement. If you're up for a long, long read, the results can be found here.