Great performances lift protracted sequences in 'The Master'

If art is judged on its ability to provoke debate, then Paul Thomas Anderson makes great art.

From his eye-catching 1997 portrait of the adult entertainment industry, ‘Boogie Nights’, which reinvigorated Mark Wahlberg’s screen fortunes, to the bombast of ‘There Will Be Blood’, featuring Daniel Day Lewis, the Californian writer-director has consistently challenged us.