It was different than what I expected. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not my favorite P.T. Anderson movie. It’s not really about a cult leader who is played by Philip Seymore Hoffman but about the character of Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix). He is a WWII vet who is not the sharpest tool in the shed. He is violent, a drunk and seems lost after the war. He is a prime candidate for indoctrination by Lancaster Dodd. We see the rise of this cult from Quell’s perspective as he gets sucked into Dodd’s world. The acting is excellent by everyone here, the direction is as good as I would expect and the film is not boring. It just needed some sort of sympathetic anchor.