Master

Name: Master
Genre: Drama
Released: March 18, 2022
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 66
Cast: Bruce Altman, Ella Hunt, Jennifer Dundas, Joel de la Fuente, Leslie Fray

2022

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Ratings

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4.7

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4.7	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 26 Ratings

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Master

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Movie Details & Credits

Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): March 18, 2022 | R

Starring: Bruce Altman, Ella Hunt, Jennifer Dundas, Joel de la Fuente, Leslie Fray, Molly Bernard, Regina Hall, Talia Balsam, Talia Ryder, Will Hochman

Summary: Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), anProfessor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), an energetic and optimistic Black freshman. Jasmine’s time at Ancaster hits a snag early on when she’s assigned a dorm room that is rumored to be haunted. Things get worse when Jasmine clashes in the classroom with Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), a professor in the middle of her own racially charged tenure review. As Gail tries to maintain order and fulfill the duties of a Master, the cracks begin to show in Ancaster’s once-immaculate facade. After a career spent fighting to make it into Ancaster’s inner circle, Gail is confronted with the horrifying prospect of what lies beneath, her question ultimately becoming not whether the school is haunted, but by whom.… Expand

Director: Mariama Diallo

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 91 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Collider Therese Lacson

Apr 25, 2022

With a stellar cast and inspired direction, Master is a thrilling and potent horror story about academia that has made its impact. Read full review

Brittany P. Witherspoon

Jan 27, 2022

Master builds up to one of the most emotionally explosive horror finales I have seen in a while. Read full review

Tomris Laffly

Jan 26, 2022

Not all of Diallo’s thematic queries land, and at times, she weakens her ideas by over-explaining them. Nevertheless, her fearless interrogation resonates like a penetrating scream you can’t unhear. Read full review

Lovia Gyarkye

Jan 26, 2022

Despite its hiccups and frustrations, Master is inventive in finding fresh ways to package familiar observations about American racism; even the most clichéd sentiments are delivered with a nudge and a wink. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Mar 16, 2022

With a more streamlined narrative, it would have been stunning. As is, the movie certainly marks Diallo as promising. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Mar 21, 2022

Master never shakes the feeling that we’re seeing a collection of tropes and ideas that never come together in a coherent narrative. Read full review

Keith Watson

Jan 25, 2022

Mariama Diallo’s film never seems to fully buy into its horror trappings and ends up treating its characters as avatars for multiple grievances. Read full review

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User Reviews

bertobellamy

Mar 26, 2022

'Master' tackles normalized racism in the U.S.A. in a somewhat interesting way, but it lacks the wit and the impact of 'Get Out!' The horror angle of the film is half-baked; nevertheless, the drama around three black women suffering from silent but vicious attacks from white people in a'Master' tackles normalized racism in the U.S.A. in a somewhat interesting way, but it lacks the wit and the impact of 'Get Out!' The horror angle of the film is half-baked; nevertheless, the drama around three black women suffering from silent but vicious attacks from white people in a prestigious college leads to a strong finale.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

JLuis_001

Mar 19, 2022

Amidst the conflicts of decision that its director deploys, Master turns out to be a story that is diluted in development and not so much in conceptualization.
The story and representation are there, but not a truly focused approach.
The story this director tells is about the racismAmidst the conflicts of decision that its director deploys, Master turns out to be a story that is diluted in development and not so much in conceptualization.
The story and representation are there, but not a truly focused approach.

The story this director tells is about the racism embedded in the cultural existence of communities that are majority white, and institutionally in universities of higher education. So far so good, especially in tone.
But what could have been much more relevant for its thematic content and excellently atmospheric for its cinematic style, is dissipated by a constant foolishness to create sequences that feel more disorienting than frightening.

Again, the message is there and that helps, and the questions it provokes are more than pertinent, but if you're aiming to make a horror/suspense film with it's notable social commentary, you have to go beyond what Jordan Peele does.
Master is a more serious film than Peele's, but it's clear that there are a lot of lessons here that were learned from Get Out and Us.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Voodoo123

Sep 30, 2022

The decent production value and cast elevate the poor material that seems to waver between being a coming of age racially charged drama that sometimes disguises itself as a horror film. Juggling it's time between the two major characters the ideas here are interesting but flawed in a movieThe decent production value and cast elevate the poor material that seems to waver between being a coming of age racially charged drama that sometimes disguises itself as a horror film. Juggling it's time between the two major characters the ideas here are interesting but flawed in a movie that fails to fully capitalize on either concept instead settling for a mediocre outing.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Mauro_Lanari

May 10, 2022

(Mauro Lanari)
In her feature film debut, Diallo faces an avalanche of arguments she can't focus, jamming "too many plot beats, characters and polemical points into the narrative for all of them to pay off satisfactorily" (Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post").

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

hnestlyonthesly

Jan 12, 2023

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Master is a movie that came onto my radar as I'm thinking more about the breadth and potential for horror films to tell different kinds of stories than we've seen in the past. The Slate review of this movie (the sole reason that I even thought to see it) mentions that the movie is a complete serviceable satire of college life as a PoC with a horror film that feels a little shoehorned in and I sympathize with that assessment. As with Raw, the elements of realism and the depictions of human cruelty directed toward a young and vulnerable woman in her first few weeks of freshman year are a lot more scary than any of the fantastical moments. Actually, come to think of it, a lot of the horror sequences are the moments that take me out of the story the most. For instance, there's this weird subplot of Mennonites who live on the borders of town that really feels like its going to pay off at some point, which it doesn't really. If anything, their completed thread in the plot leads to an even more bizarre and stupid plot point that's related to (spoiler) trans-racial identity, I guess (???). There's this random running sequence that starts in what might be the morning on a brisk fall day but ends up being a winter's evening that stretches into the dark when the Headmaster of the college, Gail Bishop (Regina Hall), ends up running into a cemetery with a flashlight and finds Amelia, Jasmine Moore's roommate, but it doesn't really make any sense. It feels like the way that Bishop responds to Amelia's disheveled state, bloodied knees and torn stockings is that she identifies it as a sexual assault, especially since Amelia doesn't want to get checked out by the nurse and she hurriedly pronounces she "knows what happens" next if she comes forward and talks. Without being explicitly stated, it really does seem like Bishop just lets off these frat boys with less than a slap on the wrist, though? And then that lack of administrative action leads to Jasmine being isolated and alone for the second semester, which leads to all sorts of consequences that are kind of too dumb to recount, except to say that there's quite a bit of lazy writing toward the end.

We can get into the weeds about this other spoilery plot point since--hey, what else are we going to do with this messy movie?--it's probably not one you're likely to see during an opening weekend or ever, to be honest, what with its release on Amazon Prime this month and no theatrical release in sight. Jasmine's suicide feels boring at best and at worst is kind of trash as social commentary. One of the coolest organizing principles of this film are the chapter title cards at the beginning of each scene which anticipate some especially charged line. In the suicide chapter, the audience is primed for Jasmine's realization that her Headmaster's observation about racism being present everywhere and unavoidable. This observation leads her, presumably, to hang herself after a rough night/Thanksgiving week/semester at college, copycatting the suicide of another Black freshman student in the 1960s whom she's been tracking. The upshot of Jasmine's insight really feels shallow. Racism is everywhere, even if you haven't directly experienced it as valedictorian of your racial paradise in the Seattle-Tacoma suburbs? What does that even mean? How is Jasmine so naive? Also, why is the film so **** obsessed with making The Scarlet Letter mean something racial or not? Anyway, the best moments are things like the white kids at the frat singing the N-word with the hard "r" at the party, the way that the girls so flippantly reduce Jasmine during financial exchanges, and the like, moments that feel all-too-familiar to personal experiences as an outsider. But the scary moments are mostly pretty flat. Bishop's scary scenes are almost exclusively bug related? Probably the first sleep walk sequence is the most startling and unsettling and the further along we progress, the more mentally prepared you are for **** which in turn actually lessens the impact of some of the truly wild images. It's really strange that there wasn't more of an effort to make students responsible for the horror elements of the film, as was the case, I assume, with a movie like Black Christmas. I've written before about how much I like horror films that allow for the audience to feel some surrogate agency through their protagonist's fighting back against the supernatural or human antagonists in their environment, how that kind of catharsis is really satisfying in a way that simply sympathizing with their terror is not. Master probably has some mileage for you and your friends if you're looking for a movie with some light racial commentary, but mostly is just consumed by some deranged ideas about what the process for tenure looks like at elite college universities. I've obviously been on a horror kick this month with X, then Turning Red, and now this. I give this movie half a Babadook.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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