I wanna give, I wanna give, I want to give everything up for grabs. I wanna say, I wanna say, I wanna say all the little things. I wanna make, I wanna make, I wanna make all of the good times. I want to shake, I want to shake, I want to shake, I want to shake your hand.
But what I really want to do is dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance.
I wanna feel, I wanna feel, I want to feel lake water. I wanna think, I wanna think, I wanna think, Oh, man, I want to think something fine. I wanna take, I wanna take, I want to such a long long time. I wanna wake, I wanna wake, I want to wake up and see your shoes in the stairwell.
It takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass. It takes a good friend to meet you in the park in the dark. It takes an enemy to help you get out of bed. It takes your lover to leave you, to feel loneliness.
I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance. I wanna dance.
I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to sew a button on my shirt. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to come home. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you to help us out. I want you, I want you, I want you, I want you only to love me for my black eyes.
It takes a good friend to say you've got your head up your ass. It takes a good friend to meet you in the park in the dark. It takes and enemy to help you get out of bed. It takes your lover to leave you, to feel loneliness.
Who is the master? And who can live without serving a master?
In the 2012 film The Master, Freddie Quell—a character brought into curdled life by the singular Joaquin Phoenix—drifts and crashes from one moment to the next, his troubled life being one corrosive improvisation. Quell is a haunted World War II vet with no aim beyond staying intoxicated and self-destructing.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Lancaster Dodd, the leader of a philosophical movement known as "The Cause." His critics charge that Dodd improvises his philosophy from moment to moment, that he is a fraud. But his followers see an enlightened, intense visionary.
Quell is tortured, intense, rough, gaunt, uneducated, drawn to poisons and pain; Dodd is composed, graceful, educated, well-dressed, plump, and drawn to the spotlight. When the film debuted, critics wondered, What, if anything, does the film say? say about our talk of freedom and our readiness to serve a master? about the inevitable disappointment that comes with looking up to someone? about faith? belief?
Maybe Dodd serves more than one master: he serves his audience's expectations, his wife, his vanity and ego. He is intrigued by Phoenix, drawn by his intensity and desperation. Each man is fed and inspired by the interest and attention of the other; each man is the other's project, and each can take the other to the next improvised step, wherever it may lead.
The Master is fantastic, unorthodox, beautiful, grimy, and searing.
Note: The Master was written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson and stars Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.
