I’m loving that P.T. Anderson isn’t giving anything away in these trailers. Setting up scenes that add to the mystery of exactly what the film is about is excellent, as I’m sick of seeing trailers that tell you all you need to know and basically make you not want to waste the cost of a ticket to see them. Yeah, yeah, it’s supposed be about the founding of Scientology or some other cult-like religion with a curious hold on its adherents, but these trailers don’t even hint at this at all. Like Anderson’s other films, I’m betting it’ll go over the head of those expecting a traditional narrative, yet stand up quite well to repeated viewings. Hey, I saw There Will Be Blood something like seven times just to pick through every scene and absorb all it had to say, so this one is looking like another deep diver. Off to find a milkshake… “Draiiiiiinage!”

It’s hard to believe that the self-taught director Anderson has, including this upcoming film, a mere five movies under his belt and all of them are amazing to spend time with when they pop up on cable. His latest work, set for an October release, is a story about a a man (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) who starts up his own cult-like “religion” in the 1950’s with ex-Navy sailor (played by Joaquim Phoenix) ending up as his personal assistant, most likely after the events this creepy trailer hints at. Interestingly enough, Hoffman isn’t in the trailer at all – it’s all Phoenix here, and while the clip is cryptic, it also hints at a bit of madness and violence in the character he’s playing. I predict another film in the vein of There Will Be Blood, Anderson’s epic-length character study that netted Daniel Day-Lewis an Academy Award (and everyone else the right to make “I drink your milkshake!” jokes, even if they never saw the film). This is really turning into a pretty cool year for movie lovers, that’s for sure…