Movie Breakdown: Master (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
The trailer has me split between, “Ooooooh, this looks artsy and good and probably scary. Also, maggots, gross!” and “This looks like every other artsy horror flick I’ve seen in the last five years. Also, maggots, gross!”
Post-Screening Ramble:
Master has the makings of about seven very good horror films. Really, this a very well put together, very cramped film that wants to dip a toe into a lot of different genres of horror while wrapping it all in an exploration of race dynamics in higher education. It is, to say the least, quite a bit. Cass (Zoe Renee) is one of the few black freshmen at the almost-Ivy, sort of haunted, white-as-fuck college, Ancaster. Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) is a former student-turned-tenured professor who’s just become the first black Master – a sort of professor/advisor/member-of-leadership – at Ancaster. The college is full of rumors of ghosts and rich, systemically racist white kids and Cass and Gail struggle with both in their new positions. There’s also a witch who’s supposedly reborn every certain amount of years. And there’s a hooded figure that seems to stalk the halls of Ancaster. And there’s Cass’s academic battle with a hip young professor seeking tenure. There’s the aforementioned maggots and the horrible history of the college and, and and … there’s – well, man, there is a lot. The issue isn’t quality in Master, it’s quantity. Director Mariama Diallo has stuffed this film with so much about systemic racism and the problems with institutionalized higher education and society as a whole that by the end of the film it feels like they’re fighting to just tie up all the loose ends before the film comes to a close. Which, frankly put, she is not successful at. The film stumbles in the end, introduces some interesting if not seemingly superfluous plot details and tries to wrap the plot with an almost off-screen wink and a nod. Nothing is resolved and all the audience is left with is a hazy memory of some good elements of a film and the lingering feeling that we’ve missed something.
One Last Thought:
There’s a scene in a frat party where Cass is stuck dancing in the middle of a group of drunken white frat guys that is terrifying. All the blustery, potentially dangerous masculinity of an event like this distilled down in to a flickering, red-filmed moment of terror.
