THE MASTER (2012) P.T. Anderson's film on the origions of Scientology (sort of), Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Laura Dern

Laura Dern does some of the best acting that has ever been done in the one little scene where she quizzes PSH about the nonsense and he yells "what do you want from me, Helen!?" at her, and she turns away shattered

I saw this in the theatre with my mom. She’s really into salacious Scientology scandals and isn’t super into “high brow” film. Her paraphrased review: “I didn’t know it was just going to be about.. two guys being guys”

she gets it

I think it worked better as a metaphor for Scientology.. that way they can't complain about little errors in the details

And PSH's character was sympathetic at times, whereas Hubbard was a deluded pervert monster

Reading a really interesting book on the Sullivanians, a cult-like commune out of New York from the '60s right through to the '90s.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374600396/thesullivanians

They're not mentioned in this thread. Anyone who knows the origins of PTA's film better than I do, is there any connection there?