Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies, and TV Reviews

Director Paul Thomas Anderson ( The Master ) had his work cut out for him. Pre-buzz about Inherent Vice pointed to the un-adaptability of Thomas Pynchon 's eponymous novel, upon which this is based and which I haven't read. The resulting film, for which Anderson wrote the adapted screenplay, covers what seem like multiple tangents, like Anderson was trying to rein in a sprawling, unstructured novel. The driving action (all set in California in 1970) focuses on stoner PI Doc Sportello (a full-gonzo Joaquin Phoenix , who previously worked with Anderson on The Master ). His ex-girlfriend, Shasta (the ethereal muse Katherine Waterston , who's wowed me on stage in Kindness and Bachelorette ), is now seeing Mickey Wolfman ( Eric Roberts ). Shasta asks Doc to investigate the machinations of Wolfman's wife and Wolfman's wife's boyfriend. (Does this sound a little confusing? It kind of is, but pay attention and you'll follow along.) Doc takes on the case, an...

Do you remember that cult TV movie The Wave ? I don’t mean that it was a cult hit but rather that it was about how easy it is to form and gain followers for a cult. It took place in a school, and a teacher began a “movement” as a way of demonstrating what a cult is, then it spiraled out of control and became an actual cult. It’s from 1981 and if you missed it you’re not missing much, except I can’t help but think that Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest opus, The Master , was maybe, in some small part, inspired by that movie of the week. The Master follows Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) as he is inculcated in The Cause, a new religion – which many view as a cult – created by the master, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Leading up to and following the release of The Master , many were speculating that The Cause was (not-so-loosely) based on Scientology, the cult/religion followed by some Hollywood A-listers. I can see where the specifics of The Cause (particularly its belief ...