THE MASTER

Last night I finally went to see Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER at the Revue.  This time I had the wits to walk south from Dundas West station instead of waiting for the streetcar.

I'm not a big Anderson fan.  I liked BOOGIE NIGHTS, but I couldn't take more than a few minutes of MAGNOLIA or PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE. (Moira liked MAGNOLIA, so maybe I should try it again, or maybe not.) THERE WILL BE BLOOD I found oddly off-putting, though Daniel Day-Lewis was worthy, if not as appealing as he got to be in LINCOLN.

Didn't care much for this one either.  Before I saw it, Moira--who hadn't even seen the movie--predicted that I wouldn't like Joaquin Phoenix' performance, and she was right!  I don't know where she got the gift of prophecy.  He was rather annoying as the cult newcomer:  I could see him "acting." (He might get an Oscar nomination.) Philip Seymour Hoffman was better as the cult leader:  watching him just felt more comfortable.

I'm sometimes attracted to movies like this because of the 1950s setting, another example being Terence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE. (Watching that movie was like doing a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are missing.) But this film could have been called "The World Is Full of Idiots."

Hoffman sings the song "I'll go no more a-roving" during an ORGY scene! (That reminded me of all the classic music A CLOCKWORK ORANGE ruined.) At least, it was sort of an orgy: the women got naked, but there didn't seem to be any sex happening.  Not as self-important as the EYES WIDE SHUT orgy, but pretty slight.

It's the kind of movie that his this dialogue exchange: "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing." "Say it again." "I'll quit boozing."

("We'll quit repeating our lines." "Say it again.")

Query:  In the scene where Phoenix sees Hoffman's boat for the first time, they're playing chacha music.  Did they have that as early as 1950?