Paul Thomas Anderson's Lonesome American Family

                                                                                  By Tom Pacak

All of the works of director Paul Thomas Anderson explore his vision of the American family. This is best seen in three films: The Master, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood. They explore what it is like to lack a family and how isolation can draw one into a surrogate family. His characters capture this landscape of disconnection. Film critic and poet Geoffrey O’Brien describes the America of Paul Thomas Anderson as, “a country of deep loneliness-that same loneliness that permeates all of Anderson’s films, and against which his characters are forever forcing themselves into protective families or parodies of families, a population of paternalistic strangers, adoptive songs, surrogate mothers, fake cousins” (O’Brien 292). Anderson is a director who is obsessed with history and environments, but also interested in the spaces his characters dwell in. What makes all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s works compelling is his ability to make his characters lack connection but desire connection at the same time.

            Upon release, The Master (2012) frustrated audiences with its challenging story and its unanswered questions. The Master centers around a damaged and anti-social World War II veteran Freddie Quell. Freddie spends most of his days drinking and getting in fights with people. He is violent, rude, gross, and even accidentally kills a farm worker after making him a cocktail. One night he comes around a yacht that is hosting the family of Lancaster Dodd (the late Philip Seymour Hoffman). Lancaster is the leader of The Cause, a religious group resembling Scientology. Freddie and Lancaster bond fast and the film chronicles them trying to gain followers for the Cause.

Late movie critic Roger Ebert gave the film a mixed review and said, “Paul Thomas Anderson is one of our great directors. “The Master” shows invention and curiosity. It is often spellbinding. But what does it intend to communicate?” (Ebert 1) This review is a fair embodiment of what many critics and audiences were thinking when the film was released. They suggested it was well directed and had several beautiful shots, but the story was hard to follow and there was no real conclusion. Peter Travers, movie critic for Rolling Stone, praised The Master and named it the best film of 2012. In his end of the year review, he said, “But the neg-heads say, ‘I don’t get this movie.’ Talk about it, people. See it again. Pry into it. Discuss your issues with friends. Argue. Debate. That used to be what movies were about till the multiplex turned our brains to mush” (Travers 1). This criticism and praise can be attributed to PTA’s commitment to telling a story that has no order.

The more you watch The Master, the more difficult it becomes to understand. What makes it so difficult is the psychological study of Freddie. We never get a reason for why Freddie is the way that he is. Even though he was enlisted during World War II, it wouldn’t make sense for him to have PTSD because we only see him lying around posted on the beach and on the ships during the war. He was never in active combat, which makes it more puzzling that he is mentally ill. Freddie is also a drifter, he is a man that goes with the flow and doesn’t have a journey or a destination. Freddie also doesn’t change throughout the movie. Most movies have every protagonist go through some life-changing event. In the end, after leaving the Cause, Freddie is the same disgusting human he was at the beginning. It makes you question, what is the point of the film if our main protagonist isn’t trying to achieve something or change?

Both protagonists Freddie Quell and Lancaster Dodd are men who have no idea what they want out of their journey or what they want out of their odd relationship. Anderson has used the concept of a lost soul being found by an almighty leader many times in his films. He deployed it in his directorial debut Hard Eight (1995), where a mysterious 60-year-old gambler Sydney (Philip Baker Hall) recruits a young man named John Finnegan (John C Reilly) as his young prodigy in the gambling world. The purpose of this recruitment was to make sure that John finds his way in the world after Sydney murdered John’s father years back. In Boogie Nights (1997), famous porn director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) is a surrogate father to Eddie Adams aka Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). Jack sees potential in Eddie to become a huge star in the pornography industry. In There Will Be Blood (2007), Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) adopts H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier) after the boy’s biological father dies in an oil accident that happened on Daniel’s watch. Later, H.W. is used as a prop to advance Daniel’s successful business skills. All of these films are centered around successful leaders recruiting lost souls for their own fair—yet self-interested-- reasons.  

Despite all these films having intricate, personal reasons for this relationship, in The Master, there is no clear purpose for Lancaster to recruit Freddie. Lancaster expresses to Freddie that he loves the drinks that he makes and is interested in him as a person. Lancaster is the only member in the cause that stands at Freddie’s side. Lancaster’s wife (Amy Adams) believes that he is too much of a liability to be a part of the Cause. Lancaster describes Freddie as, “aberrated”, meaning he deviates from what society considers normal or correct. Lancaster makes no reason to recruit the man other than that Freddie is abnormal. A key shot that shows this is the Steadicam when the two protagonists are leaving the desert in Phoenix. In this scene, Freddie and Lancaster are leaving the desert to get some of Lancaster’s unpublished works. Critic Zsolt Gyenge describes in his analysis on the film that “The shot is important for my argument mainly because it proves once again that the visual strategy of not showing the direction where the characters are looking or heading is central in the entire film” (Gyenge 120-121).  The shot is meant to show that the lead characters have no idea where they are going in life.

Freddie is blocked from having any connection in society. Writer George Toles presses in his book Paul Thomas Anderson that, “Anderson begins The Master with a high-angle view of churning ocean waves, with attendant associations of voyaging out. The second shot grants us the perspective of a man in an army helmet. We see only the upper part of his face” (Toles 115). The man is Freddie Quell drifting off into sleep. Anderson wants to show the viewer that we can't really tell the emotion of the main character. The voyaging out of the waves in the first shot is a representation of the two male protagonists. Although they have a need to connect with somebody, the two cannot explain why they need one another or the need the other fills.

Another particular scene that shows this manifestation is the process scene. In this scene, Lancaster tries to bring Freddie closer to The Cause by asking him a series of questions about his past and his own imagination. Many of the questions Lancaster asks Freddie are verbatim out of the “Oxford Capacity Analysis” test that Scientology uses to recruit potential members. “Do your past failures still worry you?” “Are you often impulsive in your behavior?” “Are you logical and scientific in your thinking?” Freddie is required not to blink or drift off during the process. Lancaster tries to force out details about Freddie’s past. Freddie struggles to comply with most of his questions. Lancaster restarts the process every time Freddie fails to answer or follow the rules. There is no reason why Freddie and Lancaster are doing this process other than to connect. Freddie is obviously a stranger to Lancaster. Their connection is a mystery to the audience and to each other.

            Despite religion being a key theme in the film, Paul Thomas Anderson wanted audiences to question the time period instead of Scientology. When promoting the film, Anderson got sick of answering questions about "The Cause." In an interview with Vanity Fair, Anderson is quoted saying, "It kind of gets to a spot where you have to figure out where all of the bodies are going. I guess that kind of creates situations where people want to talk about past lives. They want to talk about what happens after you die. [The] kinds of idea that The Master is putting forward is that time travel is possible. Accessing things that happened to you in other lives is possible. Those are great ideas, I think, and they are hopeful ideas. That was fascinating for me to write the story around” (Miller 1). When the movie was released, many critics and audience members thought “The Cause” closely resembled religion, particularly Scientology. Both religions incorporate time travel, have cult-like tendencies, and both Lancaster Dodd and L Ron Hubbard were charismatic authors turned leaders.

Anderson wanted to make a movie about how post World War 2 veterans were thinking. Anderson believed that these veterans were suffering from the war and the murders they committed. They were concerned about where the bodies of the people they murdered went. Did they go to a past life where they become a different person? What happens when you die? There were questions running through the heads of these suffering men when they came back. “The Cause” deals with one’s past life and time travel is key when processing the idea of a past life.

The ideas of religion and longing for a family were not new for Paul Thomas Anderson when The Master was released. In this third film Magnolia (1999), Anderson explores these themes in his story about lost souls in San Fernando Valley. The film follows an ensemble cast of Paul Thomas Anderson regulars who go through a day in the San Fernando Valley searching for happiness, sadness, and comfort. These include, a talk show host diagnosed with cancer Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), his drug addicted daughter Claudia (Melora Walters); lonely police officer Jim (John C Reilly); TV producer on his death bed Earl Partridge (Jason Robards), his unstable trophy wife Linda (Julianne Moore), his misogynistic son Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), his empathetic nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman); an older former Quiz Kid champion looking for love Donnie Smith (William H. Macy); and a younger quiz kid afraid of failure Stanley (Jeremy Blackman). When the film was released, its direction, acting, and ambition all received critical acclaim. Film critic Richard Propes expressed his admiration for the film since the release as, “Five years later, I want to know these characters… I care about where they are now and their thoughts and feelings and life experiences. Magnolia is, quite simply, a masterpiece” (Propes 1).  Richard Propes was expressing how deeply Paul Thomas Anderson made you feel for his damaged characters, expressing that hopefully, these characters are happy at some point in their life.

The film opens with a narrator (Ricky Jay) telling three unordinary stories. The first is about a guy in Greenberry Hill, London who is murdered by three men named Joseph Green, Stanley Berry, and Daniel Hill. The second follows a scuba diver killed by a firefighting airplane flown by a pilot he had met a couple days before. The last is about a young 17-year-old man attempting suicide by jumping out of the window. The suicide was considered both a success and a failure. It was a success because the man was killed but not by the impact of the concrete. Instead, the man died when his mother fired a shotgun out the window that hit the young man. If she had not fired the gun, the man would have still been alive due to a net hanging outside the building.  All three stories have one thing in common: their coincidental nature. The three stories relate heavily to the film because all of the plots between the numerous characters are all connected by chance. The lives in this film are interrupted by some small event that changes the fate of these characters. It is a coincidence that a talk show host who attempts suicide will realize that God wants him to die in a more sinister way or that a police officer will lose his gun while pursuing a suspect in a murder case.  Magnolia’s message is that at the end of the day, crazy things happen to people by chance.

The tragic characters in this film all share the same connection. They’re all longing for love and their struggle is relatable. Life has screwed them over so severely they don’t know how to get back up. They’re stuck having feelings of regret, depression, and emptiness. Jimmy Gator regrets cheating on his wife, wants to connect with his estranged daughter, and can’t remember if he sexually assaulted her. Claudia dwells on her own sadness by staying coked up in her apartment and by shutting out anybody that tries to give her love. Jim the police officer has a strong desire to protect anybody and this desire reveals itself when he falls in love with the pathetic Claudia. When Jim tries to comfort Claudia, she quickly shows him off. Claudia believes that she deserves to be the miserable person that she is. The dying film producer Earl has deep regrets of cheating and abandoning his family; Linda shows regret of taking advantage of Earl’s wealth. Due to Earl leaving the family, Frank, his son, transforms into a misogynist who hosts seminars on how to seduce women. Chance perhaps affects Frank most of all because of his background and his character traits. Frank was forced to take care of his mother on his own due to his father leaving him. Frank then transformed into a man who hates women. It is a coincidence that Frank hates women. Why would a man who loved his mother turn into a misogynist? Phil, the nurse, is a very empathetic man who doesn’t judge the producer’s past, but does his job to help a man who is dying. Quiz Kid Donnie Smith is a miserable man whose parents took advantage of his talent and stole all of his money he won from trivia competitions. Since then, he is poor and works a terrible job as a TV salesman. He has a crush on a male bartender with braces. In order to win the bartender’s affection, Quiz Kid tries to finance getting braces. Quiz Kid is a man who has love to give but doesn’t know where to put it. On the other hand, Stanley is a bright kid who excels in the trivia contest. His dad is a pushover on him and if it continues, he’ll reach the same fate as Donnie Smith.

All of these sad characters, despite their different struggles, share a sing-along scene together. After all of the characters have outbursts that many would consider failures, they sit in silent reflection. Soon these characters start bursting out singing Aimee Mann's "Wise Up." PTA uses this scene to confront a truth-telling crisis but instead using speech he uses the power of music. PTA thought the best way to do the number was "to have it creep up on you" (Anderson 1). Each shot in which PTA shows the characters singing, this song is supposed to reflect their current situation.

The first shot that Paul Thomas Anderson shows is of Claudia sitting in her apartment. After embarrassing herself in front of Jim the officer, Claudia is sitting on her couch ready to snort a line of cocaine. After snorting the line, she hears “Wise Up” on the radio. She sings the song because she knows it pretty well. Her line that she sings is “It’s not what you thought you when you first began it… you got what you want, now you can hardly stand it.” This line perfectly reflects Claudia’s awareness of her isolation from her family. Aimee Mann is able to be with these characters during their tough times. She knows the struggles they’re going through and the characters for the first time in the film able to acknowledge it as well.  The simple advice Aimee offers these poor individuals at the end is: “it’s not going to stop until you wise up.”

The performances that Paul Thomas Anderson pulls out of these actors are nothing short of amazing. Paul Thomas Anderson is no stranger for weird but perfect casting choices. He is the director who saw more than the typical buffoon that Adam Sandler usually plays by giving him a warm performance in Punch Drunk Love (2002), a story about a lonely man who falls in love with a woman but also buys copious amounts of pudding to get frequent flyer miles. In Magnolia, Anderson has a wide variety of talented actors he has to juggle around with. He's got the likes of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise, John C. Reilly, and Julianne Moore. PTA used the ensemble cast set up in his sophomore debut Boogie Nights and to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s stoner mystery novel Inherent Vice (2014). In my opinion, Tom Cruise probably gives his best serious performance to date. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor Oscar back in 1999 but didn’t win. Paul Thomas Anderson was a huge Tom Cruise fan before he made the film. In "Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an actor", it is stated that "Earlier that year, Anderson's father, Ernie, had died of cancer. Cruise understood. He, too, had lost his father early” (Nicholson 1). Cruise asked Anderson to write him a part in his new film after watching Boogie Nights. Six months after talking, Anderson came up to Tom Cruise with the part of T.J. Mackey, a man who has a meltdown in front of his dying father’s bed.

            Cruise does a great job of playing a mamas boy who has a deep hatred for his father. Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly praised his performance, “Preening and trash-talking, Cruise — whose erotic charms have always been displayed wrapped in cellophane — blossoms into a man of potency” (Schwarzbaum 1). Frank Mackey used his hatred to an advantage by starting self-help sex guru classes to help men who see nothing in women but sex. He tells his troops to always, “respect the cock and tame the cunt.” One particular scene that shows this anger towards his father is during the interview scene with Gwenovier (April Grace). The interview at first starts with Frank narcissistically talking about his success.  In this intense scene, Frank is comforted about his family history. Nobody is aware of Frank’s past except for him and the reporter. After hearing these questions, Frank goes silent for the remainder of the interview. Frank doesn’t want to acknowledge how his father abandoned him and how he never really had a family. As the scene keeps going back and forth to the other characters failing, Frank sits there in silence with rage showing on his face.  He openly tells Gwen, “I’m quietly judging you.” Paul Thomas Anderson does a great job using the power of close-ups so we know Frank’s emotions. He stole this technique from his long-time friend and role model the late director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild). Paul Thomas Anderson has expressed his love and admiration for Jonathan Demme several times in interviews. Paul Thomas Anderson is quoted saying, “My top three directors of all time: Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Demme” (Anderson 1). Anderson used this technique from Jonathan Demme to show the ticking time bomb that Frank is in his scene. Leaving viewers on the edge of their seat, if this man will explode at the mirror, holding up his actual reality. A man who may be done with the past but the past is not done with him.

            The performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman must also be singled out in this analysis. Phil Hoffman plays Phil Parma, the sympathetic nurse to the dying Earl Partridge.  Phil Parma is a huge connector between the story of Frank and Earl. He is the nurse that exhibits kindness and determination to help his dying patient. Phil goes above and beyond to see Earl get his one wish of seeing his son one last time. Phil tells a telemarketer on the phone, “I know this sounds silly, like this is the scene in the movie where the guy’s trying to get ahold of the long-lost son, you know, but this is that scene. Because they really happen. See, this is the scene in the movie where you help me out” (Anderson 94). This self-awareness and brutal honesty is something only PTA can construct and something only Phil Hoffman can put on screen. A man truly reaching out because he loves the sinner but not the sins Earl committed.

At the end of the film, when all feels lost for these tragic characters, frogs start falling from the sky. There is no explanation throughout the film to why the frogs start falling but Anderson gives hints that the frogs will come. During the quiz show, Anderson cameos as himself as a man taking a sign from a crowd member that says, “Exodus 8:2.” The passage says, “But if you refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite your whole territory with frogs.” Life has gotten so out of control that the only logical thing that would make sense is to have frogs fall from the sky. Anderson said in an interview that, "It wasn't until after I got through with the writing that I began to discover what it might mean, which is this: you get to a point in your life, and shit is happening, and everything's out of your control, and suddenly, a rain of frogs just makes sense" (Anderson 1).  The ending reflects back to the beginning stories that they all happened by coincidence.

 All of the characters in the film are shocked that the frogs are falling except for Stanley. Stanley, the young quiz kid, is sitting in the library as the frogs are falling. He has an optimistic facial expression and says, “This happens. This is something that happens.” Everybody else is in shock or questions what is going on around their environment but Stanley acknowledges these coincidences. Stanley is able to do this because he is much younger than the rest of the group. The other characters have had years of trauma and life-changing events happen to them but Stanley has not. He has a father who uses him to profit money off of him. Stanley stills has time to develop who he is as a person. After the frogs fall, Stanley walks up to his father and tells him, “You need to treat me better.” His father quickly responds, “Go away.” This confidence that Stanley shows here is a sign of hope that his dad will listen to him someday and give him a connection that he needs.

The last person who is also given a chance at a better life is Claudia. Claudia is probably the most damaged one out of the ensemble. Toward the end, Claudia is in her apartment isolated from Jim somebody that truly loves her for who she is. At first, she believed that she didn’t deserve to be loved. She cut offs, Jim, after he professed his love to her and admitted his own flaws. After the frogs happened, Jim goes back to Claudia's apartment to see if she's ok. This time, Claudia is not alone. Her mother came to her need after finding out the horrible truth to why Claudia and her father don't get along. Once Jim shows up, he tells Claudia, "You're a good person. You're a good and beautiful person and I won't let you walk out on me." After this, Claudia stares directly at the camera and gives the audience a smile. This small gesture is probably the most beautiful part of this story. I remember watching the end of this movie recently and feeling moved. It hit me that a person who has had the worst happen to her can come out and live a fulfilling life. The smile is so beautiful because it is a revelation that this character deserves a better life, she deserves the love of her guardian angel Jim, and even a shot at redemption.  Anderson tells the audience in this film that life may have a sinister plan for you but everybody has a shot at living a better life.

Another film that has a rather ambitious ending but is more pessimistic with its overall message is PTA’s There Will Be Blood (2007). When the film was released, it was received with high critical acclaim with many considering it as PTA’S and Daniel Day Lewis’s best work and the best film of the 21^st century. Daniel Day-Lewis won his second Oscar for his portrayal in the film. American Film Institute's 10 movies of the year wrote praised the film: "There Will Be Blood is bravura film-making by one of the American film's modern masters. Paul Thomas Anderson's epic poem of savagery, optimism, and obsession is a true meditation on America" (Institute 1). Unlike Paul Thomas Anderson's other works, There Will Be Blood is a story that has little for its main character.

There Will Be Blood’s central character Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), is a greedy businessman who happens to see the worst in people. He tells an impostor impersonating his brother that, “I look at people and see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone.” The course of the film follows Daniel’s quest to become the richest oilman in California.

The first ten minutes there is no dialogue. PTA is quoted saying, “I had a dream where I made a movie with no dialogue. I got close with the first twenty minutes here” (Anderson 193).  Like the character in There Will Be Blood, PTA shows the same ambition that his anti-hero protagonist has. The film opens up with Daniel in a hole trying to mine silver from underground. He is very precise on how he hacks away for the silver. We already know who Daniel is when we see this first shot of him hacking away. Daniel Plainview’s only real relationship he has in the film is with isolation. He is in the most comfortable state of mind the first ten minutes of the film. The remaining ten minutes show him working by himself. Along the way, he encounters a worker who is killed in a freak accident. After this, the worker has a son H.W. that Daniel takes care of.

The first scene shows how Daniel feels about the boy. His first scene with the kid shows Daniel on a train with him heading somewhere unknown.  Daniel is shown cracking a smile (the only time you see him smile in the film) and playing with the kid. Daniel making a sales pitch to several business people that drown this scene out. Paul Thomas Anderson brilliantly shows what Daniel actually thinks of H.W. He loves H.W. because he is his son but also feels the kid as a prop for his business. The scene where Daniel gives his pitch to the businessmen, H.W. is shown standing by his side. He tells his potential customers, "I am a family man. This is my son H.W. Plainview." This is a strategy that many successful business people use to get their products to people.

 Knowing that the man who says he’s Daniel’s brother is an impostor, H.W. tries to set his house on fire and kill the man. He is unsuccessful in the attempt and sent away to the school of the deaf in San Francisco. When doing this, PTA does a smart technique where Daniel Day-Lewis look down while walking and the camera mostly pins at him when doing so. PTA does because he wants to show the viewer to follow the reality that Daniel Plainview controls. He left his kid to get ahead in the business world and the audience should follow him as he does that. This decision costs Daniel the only human connection he had in the movie.

The other family relationship Daniel had in the film is with his half-brother Henry. Arriving at Daniel’s house, Henry, Daniel’s half-brother is trying to connect with him. Daniel at first buys the idea that this man is his half-brother but once Henry doesn’t respond about one of Daniel’s early childhood memories, he gets suspicious of him. Cinematographer Robert Elswit shot this scene showing Henry in a shadow and Daniel wide in the open with the sun shining on him. Showing that Daniel is vulnerable to being betrayed, something he doesn’t like. Seeing that Henry lied to him, he decides to murder the man in cold blood. Although he liked his son, this is the only man that Daniel opened up to about his ego and ambitions. Daniel is capable of opening up to people despite being the insane man he is. Daniel is also able to only open up to people considered family (Henry, H.W.).

One person this antihero is not able to open up is Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). Eli Sunday is the hypocritical twin brother of Paul Sunday (Paul Dano). Paul is whom Daniel got in contact to drill the land. Eli is an equally greedy pastor who demands some money from Daniel for his church. Throughout the movie, these two egos clash that result in each of them gaining the upper hand in different scenarios. The fight starts out when Daniel purposely forgets to let Eli bless the well at the opening ceremony. After this happens, Daniel’s son goes deaf from an oil accident. Daniel lashes out at the pastor for not being able to heal the boy using his “alleged powers from the Holy Spirit.” Eli blames Daniel for not letting him bless the well. Setting off a war between capitalism and religion. Eli then beats Daniel when Daniel is caught murdering his brother. He embarrassing Daniel by making him go through the healing ritual at his church. Nothing beats the confrontation they have toward the end of the film. 

The ending for There Will Be Blood has been described as one of the most confusing and praised endings for a movie in years. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone is noted at saying, “For me, it’s the blunt instrument that completes the puzzle and raises the specters of oil and fanaticism that till fuel our headlines. Let the arguments begin” (Travers 1). Travers, explains that the ending shows what the true cause of who won the battle between religion and capitalism.

In the end, Daniel has made his million and lives in a mansion, alone. He drinks smokes and sleeps all day. After his bastard son tells him he has no plans to follow in his footsteps, Daniel is once again beaten and weak. He gets back up when his old foe Eli shows up at his door demanding more money and property. Daniel tells the loser to denounce his faith which he does and that his property has already been drained. He ecstatically tells Eli that, “I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!” Suddenly, a fight in the bowling alley begins when Daniel beats Eli to death with a bowling pin. This is a symbolic moment for the film that Paul Thomas Anderson brilliantly decides to conclude on. He wants to show that religion never was successful in the business back in the 1930s. Businessmen were always against donation and distribution of wealth.

Every great director’s works exhibit recurring themes that separate the work from any other directors. The works of the director help search for what’s important to the director and the overall truth. It is obviously shown in The Master, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood that Paul Thomas Anderson believes in family, connection, and having a master. Through the realization that Freddie is his own master in The Master, how Claudia Wilson Gator in Magnolia deserves to be apart of a family with Jim, and how H.W. should be his own master instead of his narcissistic father Daniel. Paul Thomas Anderson uses reality and love to convey these important themes that separate his powerful works from any other director.

References

Anderson, Paul Thomas. Magnolia: the Shooting Script. Newmarket Press, 2000.

Ebert, Roger. “The Master Movie Review & Film Summary (2012) | Roger Ebert.” RogerEbert.com, Leonard Goldberg, 19 Sept. 2012, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-master-2012.

Gyenge, Zsolt. “Visual Composition of Bodily Presence. A Phenomenological Approach      to Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2015, doi:10.1515/ausfm-2015-0018.

Heron, Ambrose. “8 And 2 in Magnolia.” FILMdetail, 29 Jan. 2010, www.filmdetail.com/2008/01/12/8-and-2-in-magnolia/.

Miller, Julie. “Paul Thomas Anderson on What The Master Is Really About (Not a Cult) and Working with Joaquin Phoenix.” The Hive, Vanity Fair, 30 Jan. 2015, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/09/paul-thomas-anderson-the-master-scientology-joaquin-phoenix.

Nicholson, Amy. Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor. Phaidon Press, 2014.

O’Brien, Geoffrey. “A Drifter and His Master.” In stolen Glimpses, Captive Shadows: Writing on film, 2002-2013.

Sharf, Zack. “Paul Thomas Anderson Speaks to Richard Linklater About Grieving His 'Hero' Jonathan Demme - Watch.” IndieWire, 28 Mar. 2018, www.indiewire.com/2018/03/paul-thomas-anderson-richard-linklater-honor-jonathan-demme-death-1201944585/.

Staff, News. “No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood Make AFI's Top Films Of '07 List.” CityNews Toronto, 17 Dec. 2007, toronto.citynews.ca/2007/12/17/no-country-for-old-men-there-will-be-blood-make-afis-top-films-of-07-list/.

Sperb, Jason. Blossoms and Blood: Postmodern Media Culture and the Films of Paul Thomas Anderson. University of Texas Press, 2014.

“The Best Movies of 2012.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 12 Dec. 2012, www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/the-best-movies-of-2012-20121212.

The Independent Critic - "Magnolia" Review, theindependentcritic.com/magnolia.

Toles, George E. Paul Thomas Anderson. University of Illinois Press, 2016.

Travers, Peter. “There Will Be Blood.” Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2015, www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/there-will-be-blood-20080118.