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Magnolia

Magnolia (1999)

tomatometer

83

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 139
Fresh: 116 | Rotten: 23

Critics say Magnolia is an ambitious, lengthy work that ultimately succeeds due to the interesting stories and excellent ensemble performances.

78

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 7

Critics say Magnolia is an ambitious, lengthy work that ultimately succeeds due to the interesting stories and excellent ensemble performances.

audience

88

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 164,188

My Rating

Movie Info

An intriguing and entertaining study in characters going through varying levels of crisis and introspection. This psychological drama leads you in several different directions, weaving and intersecting various subplots and characters, from a brilliant Tom Cruise, as a self-proclaimed pied-piper, to a child forced to go on a TV game show and the pressures he faces from a ruthless father.

R, 3 hr. 8 min.

Drama

Paul Thomas Anderson

Jul 25, 2000

New Line Cinema

Cast

All Critics (140) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (121) | Rotten (24) | DVD (40)

A wonderful mess.

April 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What this film may have needed to get on its feet is some honest-to-goodness violence.

April 27, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Observer | Comments (14)
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

All the work is top-notch.

July 21, 2005 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You don't have to like everything [Anderson] does, but if you enjoy seeing the walls rattled and the roof raised in the Hollywood citadel, you've got to love it.

March 22, 2002 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Yu could spend three hours snickering at Anderson's 'What the World Needs Now Is Aimee Mann' metaphysic. But his vision cuts deeper than a lot of folky bathos.

January 15, 2002 Full Review Source: Slate | Comment
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Magnolia makes it three-for-three for writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson

May 10, 2001 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Short Cuts is clearly the starting point, but not the ending point for a movie that is probably the most overstuffed with ideas of anything in Paul Thomas Anderson's career.

April 18, 2011 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comment
Antagony & Ecstasy

A decade after its release, P.T. Anderson's emotionally epic Magnolia gets the glorious Blu-ray treatment it deserves. This Altman-esque mosaic follows several disparate L.A. citizens on one rainy day, as they navigate through mistakes and torrenti

January 22, 2010 Full Review Source: AskMen.com | Comment

The film becomes one big stew, with too much brewing in the mix. (Blu-ray Edition)

January 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...it finally slumps down under its own weight and becomes a shambles. But, dang, it's such an attractive shambles.

January 10, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Just as something so reliably surprising as the weather can modify people's behavior, "Magnolia" encompasses an inter-connective human bond that accepts reality's blind spots. Purity of intention, as the story suggests, is a happy accident that can hit ev

April 13, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comment
ColeSmithey.com

Magnolia's finest achievement is the sheer ambition running through every vein.

April 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

Undeniably one of the most emotionally-draining films ever made...

January 3, 2008 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment
Reel Film Reviews

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.

October 29, 2007 Full Review | Comments (5)
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Magnolia is a mess, but it's somehow encouraging: It takes a gifted director to make a movie this extravagantly foolish.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (2)
eFilmCritic.com

Easily one of the best of the year.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

One of the most enthralling and exhilarating American movies in ages.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

A bold move for Anderson, an amazing display of acting for Tom Cruise, and one of the best films of 1999.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

I think Flannery O'Connor's philosophy -- that a desensitized culture sometimes need exaggerated, loud storytelling to reawaken it -- is the operating principle here.

January 15, 2005 Comment
Looking Closer

Marks the arrival of a great, if not the greatest, modern director

October 24, 2004 Full Review Source: Cinematic Reflections | Comment

Anderson's movie has the audacity to expose the ugliness within a society that worships power and cherishes materialism.

June 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | Comment

A brilliant, ambitious work painted on a sprawling canvas.

January 21, 2004 Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | Comment
Q Network Film Desk
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Magnolia

Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Magnolia' is a great achievment for the director. The acting from the great ensemble cast was brilliant (Tom Cruise= WOW), the camera work was the usual PTA top notch, and the surprising, unexpected climax was appalling. Fans of Film should relish such a multi-layered film, but the casual movie

December 3, 2011
Kase Vollebregt

Super Reviewer

PTA uses what he learned from watching Robert Altman and creates an epic, operatic masterpiece. With an ensemble cast that is second to none, this one blew me away.

November 20, 2011
Graham Jones

Super Reviewer

    1. Frank "T.J." Mackey: Respect the cock! And tame the cunt!
    – Submitted by Jeremy F (2 months ago)
    1. Phil Parma: Frogs are falling from the sky.
    – Submitted by Michael C (4 months ago)
    1. Dixon: When the sunshine don't work, the good Lord bring the rain in.
    – Submitted by Colin M (8 months ago)
    1. Donnie Smith: We may be through with the past, but the past is not through with us!
    – Submitted by Chad E (10 months ago)
    1. Linda Partridge: And you fucking call me lady? Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on both of you!
    – Submitted by Jacob Z (12 months ago)

Latest News for Magnolia

February 7, 2007:
Ben Stiller & Tom Cruise: The New Hardy Boys?
Will Tom Cruise resort to comedy in an effort to salvage his semi-damaged image? And if so, is Ben...

November 21, 2006:
Auteur Robert Altman Passes Away at 81
Robert Altman, the esteemed and venerable director of "M*A*S*H," "Nashville,"...

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