Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson • 2012 • United States
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Paul Thomas Anderson’s monumental portrait of a traumatized postwar America features two staggering performances: from Joaquin Phoenix—as Freddie Quell, a hard-drinking Navy veteran prone to violence—and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new cult-like religion known as the Cause. The twisted, symbiotic relationship that develops between the two men becomes a dark reflection of the mysteries of power, sex, religion, masculinity, and charlatanism.