Category: Cody’s Essays

‘The Master’: A Tale of Two Addicts

master3


The Master (2012)
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
144 min.

Fairly light on spoilers, but see the movie first.

This is a review I’ve been meaning to write ever since Greg’s scathing take. He’s completely wrong about the film, but wrong in a Greg way, which is to say, entirely consistent with how he views films, so s’all good—I expect nothing less from him, and love him for it. But, the thought of his take being the only take on the film on this site just isn’t right, because it’s a great goddamn film. And in the wake of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s passing, it’s certainly been on my mind, given its central theme of addiction—a theme that has, for some reason, eluded many critics.

The infatuation between Freddie Quell (Phoenix) and Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) is never outright, hammer-over-the-head explained in The Master, leaving many viewers—and even professional reviewers—to come to the most obvious and tittilating and childish of conclusions: that they are deeply closeted homosexuals in love. Undeniably, there’s a degree of homoeroticism to many of their interactions, but to chalk their bond off as mere ‘gayness’ is to ignore what these two men are truly struggling with, and what brought them together in the first place—alcohol.
Continue reading ‘The Master’: A Tale of Two Addicts

R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman

philip


Today we lost one of the absolute best. An actor who put his all in to every role, always giving you your money’s worth, never wasting a moment of your time. A virtuoso, with all the adoration one could ever want or need from their peers and from audiences. Just goes to show, you can have it all, and still throw it away.

Addiction is something I’ve never personally experienced, so I’m by no means an expert. But I do know what it looks like. It looks like the trading of soul gratification for momentary gratification. It looks like an invited wave, grabbing hold of your beach and eroding every castle you’ve ever built, telling you it’s all just sand anyway, so why bother having them. It is evil, and it lies, and it is the ultimate internal resistance. I hope he is finally at peace.

I’d say I ‘miss’ him, but I never knew his mortal self. I only ever knew his timeless self, which will be here as long as cinema—which is to say, forever. Everything good about this man is immortal. Everything bad, I never encountered, and will never encounter. My heart goes out to his family, who I’m sure have been struggling with his two selves for some time. I hope they are able to find peace as well.
Continue reading R.I.P. Philip Seymour Hoffman

Our First Anniversary!

wedidit


Tomorrow, January 7th, marks the first anniversary of Smug Film! Thank you, everyone, who has visited our site in the last 365 days or so. I know I can speak for everyone here when I say that we are honored whenever anyone reads something on our site. In this Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, BuzzFeed world, sites like Smug Film—ones that produce actual, substantial content—seem to be disappearing. And so, when you choose to read one of our posts, you are voting, with your eyes and your brain and your free time, for the existence of full meals on the internet. Don’t get me wrong, bite-size sweets are fine in moderation, but man have they become rampant in the last couple years. It seems as though we’re stuck in this weird time period where the less attention a thing takes, the more popular it is, and the more time people spend with it. Basically, it’s like everyone’s playing Candy Crush non-stop, whether they’re even playing the actual game or not, ya feel me? But I digress.
Continue reading Our First Anniversary!

How (And Why) To Collect Blu-Rays and DVDs

collection
A small portion of my collection.

If you’re reading this site, you probably love movies, and if so, you should probably collect them. Now, before you say “No way, collecting is for turkeys!” and turn me down like I’m a bad influence out of a Ninja Turtles PSA, let me explain—this is for your benefit. Collecting gets a bad rap these days, what with shows like Hoarders and whatnot, but a real collector ain’t like those people. A real collector is fucking G. Not to toot my own horn, but I own over a thousand Blu-Rays and DVDs, and if I sold them all off right now, not only would I break even, I’d turn a profit. My collection pays for itself. I repeat—the movies I love pay for themselves. Wanna be like me? Here’s how.
Continue reading How (And Why) To Collect Blu-Rays and DVDs

Movies Can Make Any Song Good

volare

I don’t care who you are or what music you typically like, if Step Brothers doesn’t make you fall in love with the song Por Ti Volaré by Andrea Bocelli, there’s something wrong with you.

Aside from being a huge film buff, I’m a huge music buff. Hell, I’m just plain buff. (25/m/nyc/d&d free ;-* ). Basically though, there ain’t a genre of movies or music where there ain’t at least some stuff I dig. And that’s the way things should be. Who are these people who, for instance, ‘don’t like rap’ or ‘don’t like horror’ or whatever? How can anyone be so lazy? There’s tons of different types of horror movies, tons of different types of rap. To write off an entire genre is just lame. It’s 2013, people—if you don’t have eclectic taste, get the fuck outta here.

However, I can understand people not liking something if they don’t have any context for it. If you’ve never heard, for instance, reggae, hearing it for the first time will be a love it or hate it experience—it either speaks to you or it doesn’t. Its context is either hardwired inside you, a sleeping giant in your brain waiting to be woken by the right tones, or the context must be instilled. And to instill said context takes volition—it may necessitate listening to lots of different reggae artists, and various styles of reggae, and reading up on the history of the genre, until something clicks in your brain. Or, you could just fucking watch The Harder They Come.
Continue reading Movies Can Make Any Song Good