what is going on to all my movie fans out there and welcome back to my channel movie files ellie
back again with a brand new movie review and today we're discussing a new amazon horror thriller
which premiered at sundance earlier this year by the name of master got a chance to recently check
it out and i'm really excited to share my thoughts with you all and let you know if this horror
thriller is worth giving a watch all in this spoiler free review before we break it all down
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and hitting that notification bell as you can see on the screen now if you enjoyed this spoiler free
movie review well make sure to give it a thumbs up and also share it to anyone and everyone you
know that might be interested in this film but more importantly once you've seen master what did
you think i want to know your positives and your negatives but more importantly let's talk about
the performances the direction how did you think the social commentary was handling this film were
you horrified by it were you entertained were you disappointed were there some unanswered questions
left you confused let's talk about it all as a community in the comments below so for me
personally i was very excited for this film when i saw the trailer a couple months ago or maybe
it was about a maybe about a month and a half ago i was hooked number one you know me i love a good
horror i love a good thriller and i like when a film has something to say like my favorite horrors
every horror film has some type of message right and this is how they handle the message and the
social commentary the film has the ad based on the trailer i'm like okay i'm intrigued
but then regina hall i have been a fan of first in the late 90s you're best man's in the world
you're loving basketballs you're scary movies but i really had never seen regina in a more serious
role so i was really excited for that is it worth checking out well let's break it all down i want
to start off talking about the directorial debut of mariana diablo who i again never heard of her
first time seeing a project or hers but i have to say i was very impressed because this film number
one it reminds me of two films in particular and it's it's its own film it stands alone it doesn't
take a lot from these films but it reminded me a lot of get out meets loose and i'll explain that
a little bit later but i thought that she did such a good job of kind of expressing her thoughts on
microaggressions about social commentary regarding racism and the horror of racism but also just the
way she paced the film put the film together how she builds tension how it is a bit of a
slow burn but it has some interesting payoffs and some reveals some twists i didn't see coming so
i always loved discovering and finding new talent and based on this directorial debut
oh yeah diablo i will be looking for more your projects moving forward because i thought she
did such a great job of tackling this film but and there are some criticisms we'll get
into a little bit later but i thought again she did a great job but i want to touch on
this narrative now if you all aren't too familiar with master it basically follows two black women
who are on this college campus which is just primarily white people so we have regina hall
who plays gayle bishop who she is the first black woman to be the master of the school she's worked
to get to this point she's ignored some things to get to this point which we'll talk about here but
then there's a young lady by the name of jasmine she's a freshman entering this primarily like 95
white campus in her life from what you kind of get from the film she might be a person that
really has never come across controversy regarding her her skin her being black but now being in this
position with being like the only like one of eight black people on this campus she's starting
to see some of those microaggressions so what i loved about the first two acts of this film
is we're watching these two characters navigate through the campus and navigate through racism but
at the same time we have this disturbing sinister kind of supernatural myth that's going on for both
of our characters and to kind of shine a light on those two performances starting off with regina
hall i said i've really never seen her in dramatic role well after this i want to see her do more
because i really enjoyed the narrative of gail and she gail's the type of person that she has worked
very hard to become the first black master of the school but at the same time and what i like
about the social commentary because there are some people that i know that do this
they put their head down right when they're surrounded when they're the only black person in
the room they kind of ignore the the slight little racism just like kind of microaggressions the
slight kind of like oh you're black so you know this type of experience oh you black tell us
about your black experience and she just kind of you know swallows her tongue and just kind
of puts a smile on because she knows that if she lets her anger out she might not get the position
that she's looking for so i really enjoyed the narrative that she goes on in the film
where she kind of has ignored the racism on the campus and it's kind of hard for her to interact
with jasmine at that point which we'll talk about here when she's dealing with racism and how
gayle handles that racism she kind of she knows that it's there but she has just suppressed it
so much she kind of just makes it seem like it's normal so i really enjoyed the character art that
we got with gail as well as kind of the discovery she has when she moves into the master house and
she kind of puts two into it together i'm black what is the school trying to use me as as we know
the token black person so i kind of enjoyed the discovery that she goes on to this narrative but
switching over to a young lady that this is my first time coming across her and that's
zoey regina who plays jasmine arcoli of this film again she's a freshman on this campus she
has never really come across a lot of controversy with her being black but now being on this campus
she's getting questioned if she's stealing things is she you know coming across as too
aggressive when she gets certain grades with another character that we'll talk about here
in a second but i was very impressed by her performance in this film because again she has
two things that she's tackling with just as regina hall is which is number one the verbal
and the discomfort that she's getting from the white people on the campus whether it's teachers
whether it's librarians whether it's her roommate but then more in particular without giving too
much away this film has this supernatural element regarding a the room that she's in way back when
there was a person that was killed in that room and the urban legend is it haunts people so she's
tackling not only the literal racism but then the metaphor of racism and what it could mean
from this apparent witch that haunts her room so i really enjoy what she went through her confronting
racism how it is very foreign to her she's just like why are people treating this way why are
they assuming that i have this type of experience why are they assuming that i have this type of a
lifestyle or mindset i'm just here to try to get good grades i come from the suburbs i come from
a loving home don't put me in a stereotype so i really enjoyed the narrative that jasmine went on
and i thought that that performance by that young lady was incredible so the two main performances
to me were the standouts of the film and again the way the film tackles i i know for a lot of people
and i have these type of thoughts sometimes too when it comes to black movies black shows
mainly focusing on racism and discrimination and it can be very tiring right especially when it's
done bad like antebellum just you know that comes top of my mind but what i like about this film is
it does have something to say and that's one of my biggest things when we have those type of films
you know slavery films stuff like that we get so many a year and a lot of them don't turn out well
but the thing that i liked with this film had to add was it's adding some to the conversation
as to what does it look like when you have a black person or any minority that ignores
those microaggressions and what it can lead to right and when you have that type of mindset of
ignoring that you can't help someone that needs you right and that's the situation that's the
conflict at hand that regina hall deals with is she suppressed this racism so much she's just
dealt with it so much that when jasmine comes to her and say i need your help it's very foreign to
her because she's just like well it's just the way it is right it's america right so i love that the
film has something to say about don't ignore the racism address it head on help those that might
be a younger generation help them understand help them to kind of navigate and help to make a change
so i love that the film had that to add to the conversation versus other things that i've seen
in the last few years that have had this type of social commentary they don't have anything to add
to the conversation so i enjoyed that narrative that we got with the script and also i will say it
is a horror film it is a thriller film get to my criticism with that a little bit later but there
were some moments that had me i love watching horror at night and there's a moment i'll just say
it involves late at night and something under the bed i'll just leave that that scene really kind
of got to me so i will say for the the horror elements from my really horror fans out there
it's not as prominent as i want it to be but it is ha it does have some highlights addressing
kind of the horrific more tropes that you might want to expect in this type of narrative so
getting into my criticisms here i will say i mentioned how the film focuses on jasmine and gail
but there is a character by the name liv who is another a black woman uh who is introduced in the
film as a teacher who's trying to get her tinder into school and she has an issue with jasmine
that kind of caused a little bit of conflict she was in the first half in the second half but in
the third act they throw something at you that kind of left oh a bad taste in my mouth because
we really didn't build up to that point of the character again i'm being very vague about what
i'm talking of here because once you see the film you know what i'm talking about but it kind of
came out of that field it was a twist i didn't see coming but it was a twist that didn't have
much of a payoff because we didn't lead up into that point so again i thought that the actress
who i know is a broadway star she's she's great in the film don't get me wrong but i felt like the
the way they wrote that character into the narrative it just didn't piece well with the
first two acts of the film which brings me to the piecing of the puzzles i thought that the social
commentary the drama the you know the racism that the film tackles was highlighted pretty well but
i don't know if i like the horror element and the supernatural element of the film added because and
again there are some questions that you all may have was it real was it fake and you know without
giving too much away but i almost feel like the film could have went without the horror elements
more so again racism is horrific right i'm talking about the supernatural horror elements i almost
feel like they could have went away with that because it didn't really add much to the narrative
and it almost kind of distracted away from the more seriousness of the story again it wasn't like
handled terribly i just feel like i didn't mix well within the main narrative that the film was
trying to tell and then wrapping up the film it is a slow burn in the first two halves which like i
said i enjoy those narratives and the commentary and everything that the film had to offer but i
always look forward to i can withhold i can take in a slow burn if it has a good payoff and for me
first two acts were really solid very engaging but when we get to that third act with the
the live introduction to her twist and how they end jasmine's narrative and how we see gail comes
to this type of realization i don't feel like the lead up led to a satisfying payoff for me i wasn't
disappointed i was just underwhelmed and i wish again that it didn't throw in the horror elements
because it took away from what they were building to so for me it didn't really have the best payoff
so those are kind of my main criticisms before i give you my overall thoughts and give you my score
if you haven't already make sure to like the video share it comment below and of course subscribe to
the channel overall master like i said i highlight the main performances the direction the social
commentary the film had to add it does have some nice tinge of horror every now and then but i
thought that the horror overall didn't mix in with the narrative too much from my personal taste and
i didn't think that it had the satisfying payoff that i was hoping for for the occlusion of this
film but overall i say i have more positives and negatives do i recommend you i'll give it a watch
the answer is yes i'm gonna give master a solid i haven't done this in a while i'm gonna give it a
3.4 out of five i recommend you all give it a watch i know it's not going to be for everyone
one i know that there's people out there it's like oh racism social commentary in my films i don't
want none of that and then i also know there's the other side of the coin especially for minorities
people of color like myself that are just kind of sick and tired of seeing this type of narrative
but i think this is the type of film that does have something to add to the conversation
rather than just making it a part of media just to be a part of media so i do think it's that
type of film with some of my criticisms but i do recommend you all give it a watch again
3.4 out of 5. that's my thoughts i want to know yours in the comments again
pros cons performances direction did you find it to be scary did you think that it had a lot to
add to the conversation were you disappointed let's talk about it all in the comments below
thank you for watching this review hope you're staying safe as you all can see on the screen now
subscribe to the channel check out my other content we'll catch you on the next video