Watching this first full-length trailer for The Master (also known as the thinly veiled Scientology origin story) makes us wonder if Paul Thomas Anderson should just start his own faith based collective called PT-ology or Andersonism or something because the conviction with which we and everyone else we know believes this will be an incredible film and win Oscars and make you see the world differently is verging on cult-like and based on nothing else but his track record and a two minute package designed to dazzle and we all know how Prometheus turned out.
But we can’t help it. Where the previous teasers acted as ambiguous mood setters designed for Joaquin Phoenix’s tortured war vet to game for an Oscar nomination, we get a closer look at the people and the climate orbiting the charismatic religious leader who ensnares him, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who’s come a long way since holding boom mics and trying to make out with Mary Mark in Boogie Nights. Pair with an original Jonny Greenwood score which extracts as much tension from woodblock claps as Hans Zimmer white noise booms and this is a cult we would sign with in a heartbeat. Indoctrinate yourself below…
