Magnolia (1999)
Runtime: 3 hrs 8 mins
Synopsis: In a single day in Los Angeles, a number of interconnected lives are changed forever. A lonely police officer (John C. Reilly) falls in love with a disturbed cocaine addict (Melora Walters). Her father (Philip Baker Hall), the host of the game show "What Do Kids Know?" has terminal cancer and... In a single day in Los Angeles, a number of interconnected lives are changed forever. A lonely police officer (John C. Reilly) falls in love with a disturbed cocaine addict (Melora Walters). Her father (Philip Baker Hall), the host of the game show "What Do Kids Know?" has terminal cancer and tries to make amends for his past mistakes. A former champion of the show (William H. Macy) struggles to find love while the current champion (Jeremy Blackman) suffocates under the pressures of being a boy genius. An elderly man (Jason Robards) lies on his deathbed, tended by nurse Phil Parma (Philip Seymour Hoffman), while his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) wrestles with grief and guilt, and his estranged son (Tom Cruise), an infomercial host, teaches workshops on how to trick women into having sex. Throughout all of this, past deeds are lamented and strange forces loom in the air. Director Paul Thomas Anderson's follow-up to BOOGIE NIGHTS is an extravagant, emotional epic inspired by such films as Robert Altman's NASHVILLE and SHORT CUTS, with a sprawling cast of characters searching for love and meaning in a chaotic world. The cast delivers uniformly excellent performances, most notably Tom Cruise's Oscar-nominated role as the sleazy Frank T.J. Mackey. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tom Cruise
Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Producer: Joanne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson
Composer: Jon Brion
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Magnolia's finest achievement is the sheer ambition running through every vein.
Undeniably one of the most emotionally-draining films ever made...
There's a lot of really neat, cool honestly imaginative stuff in Magnolia, but it's hardly the best movie I've seen in the past month.
Magnolia is a mess, but it's somehow encouraging: It takes a gifted director to make a movie this extravagantly foolish.
What this film may have needed to get on its feet is some honest-to-goodness violence.
One of the most enthralling and exhilarating American movies in ages.
A bold move for Anderson, an amazing display of acting for Tom Cruise, and one of the best films of 1999.
I think Flannery O'Connor's philosophy -- that a desensitized culture sometimes need exaggerated, loud storytelling to reawaken it -- is the operating principle here.
Marks the arrival of a great, if not the greatest, modern director
Anderson's movie has the audacity to expose the ugliness within a society that worships power and cherishes materialism.
If it is emotional cinema you seek then this, my friends, is for you.
If any film could be described as 'art for art's sake,' it would be Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia.
It's a gambler's strategy -- double or nothing -- and Magnolia's gamble pays off.
Ever since the credits rolled I’ve been able to think of little else.
Anderson brings us his third movie... with more confidence and skill than his 29 years would suggest.
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