In Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest, all of his characters seem to be in a haze, but the drug-addled kind they’re supposed to be.

“The Master” has been known as a project about Scientology, but it’s not simply about any specific movement. The film is critical of cults, but is at the same time more ambivalent about the power they wield.

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Grave of the Fireflies The most affecting film to deal with the human devastation of World War II isn’t a sweeping, big budget epic. It’s this intimate piece of Japanese animation about a brother and sister orphaned after an Allied firebombing of their hometown takes their mother, and the military their father. Seita, the older of…

“I can’t keep doing this on my own, with these….people,” laments Daniel Plainiew, midway through Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film. That final word, “people,” tumbles out of Daniel Day-Lewis’ mouth like a piece of sour meat, rotting and foul-tasting. It’s a defining moment for his character: as far as he’s concerned, people are just no damn good. The problem is, he’s just as much of a bastard as the rest of them. And try as…

DCist’s highly subjective and hardly comprehensive guide to the most interesting movies playing around town in the coming week. Major Release: There Will Be Blood We should have held our tongues on our top 10 for the year until the actual end of the year. Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film slipped in just under the 2007 wire in limited release last week, and the director channels John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, and his own wild-eyed imagination…