A tough one to review because the presentation is quite ambiguous. Freddie Quell (Juaqine Phoenix) is an alcoholic, sailor/navy vet, suffering from war and booze induced trauma returning from WWII who can’t keep a job and is wandering aimlessly when he stumbles onto a yacht hosting Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a self-proclaimed prophet a la L Ron Hubbard, who is working to build his “process” into a successful cult. Although we don’t get into the financials, he lives off donations from rich followers using hypnosis to take people through what he claims are their past lives and free them from their torments. He takes to Freddie, a wild, disturbed man and Freddie takes to him, becoming the enforcer they need and can’t ask for. We see a man (as Dodd’s son says) making it up as he goes along, yet he also seems, seems, seems to believe his own lies, his own contradictions, as truths. Is he such a sociopath that he doesn’t even know when he’s lying, or is he a narcissistic charlatan who is simply in love with himself?. His wife, Amy Adams in a fine turn, is the real power behind the throne, cold and calculating. Much of this turns on sex and sexual repression but it also keeps you guessing about what each character really believes In the end, crazy Freddy is saner than his mentor although the act of leaving Dodd’s loving embrace will probably kill Quell in the end. Very well acted and scripted, it takes you through the early years of the establishment of this Scientology-like cult (called The Cause) but there is no resolution to it. That, in the end, is unsatisfying as cinema but may be right as to practice. The acting by all the principals, including Laura Dern as a follower and questioner, is excellent A very dark feel to parts of the film