The new film, The Master, is based largely on the life of L. Ron Hubbard. Philip Seymour Hoffman dazzles as the founder of Scientology, a charismatic Svengali who convinces his acolytes of the power of his vision. As his son says in the movie, he makes it up as he goes along. We compare fact and fiction in film with a film critic and a chronicler of Scientology.