He Said, She Said: Director Anderson does masterful job with film

Joaquin Phoenix and Phillip Seymour Hoffman star in director Paul Thomas Anderson's film, "The Master." (Photo via eonline.com)

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"The Master" stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman as a cult leader in the early '50s and Joaquin Phoenix plays a mentally-ill man he tries to help.

ALLEN: Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood") is some kind of genius. He took the basic facts from the life of L. Ron Hubbard and the beginnings of Scientology and made a film that neither bashes nor supports that church, but instead explores how we all think about belief and use spirituality in our lives. It's an honest, brutal and yet compassionate look at that subject.

MICHELLE: I'm a big fan of Anderson's. And I'll see a movie just because it has Hoffman in it. So I had high expectations here, and I wasn't disappointed. I'm not sure which lead character was more fascinating, the master or the servant. For me, Freddie Quell (Phoenix) has a lot in common with the lead characters in "Boogie Nights" and "Hard Eight" (another film by Anderson) — they're all a bit lost in a world that hasn't shown them much kindness. When someone tells them they have something special, they're instantly hooked. But I will likely watch this movie again because of Hoffman's character. I want to see if I can tell when he's conning himself, or others.

ALLEN: But Quell is not a charming scoundrel, he is a seriously disturbed person, the id personified. The last person you want in the care of a quack, even a well-meaning quack. When Phoenix is on the screen it is impossible to relax. He looks as if he could explode at any moment. In a normal film when the afflicted finds someone to care for him you expect him to get better. Anderson uses those expectations to comment on the dangers of blind belief.

MICHELLE: Of course, I wouldn't think this movie is for everyone. It's a pretty subtle plot, about faith and what you place it in, and how easy it is for a life to get off track. Both of these men are not following the rules, making it up as they go along. One wants to take over the world, the other just trying to get through the next day. You can see how tempting it is when someone confidently tells you the have The Answer.

ALLEN: If only Anderson could make 12 movies a year.